Littlest Things
by le.etoile
Summary: Bad Shield fic collection - Thirteen: Sometimes the best things can come out of the worst.
1. Crack AU

_Yay, hopefully this is will be full of many drabbles and fic thingers, since I am starting this for the bad_shield IH fanfic community over on Live Journal. (Thank you CrystalDawn for the idea to make a collection here!) __ Also, for those who read Liberte Perdue, we'll be uploading the first chapter tomorrow. We've made the new account (which is , fyi), but due to general spam concerns from the site staff, we aren't allowed to upload anything until after 48 hours. So watch out for it! XD_

_**.prompt.** __Nagicakes (i.e., ombre noctune over here): _"_Orihime is the owner of a haunted house. Ichigo is the new recruit and needs to be shown the ropes. Spooky, scary things and Ichigo being scared silly is highly encouraged but not mandatory.")

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_

"So the clowns will pop over there, and there'll be bubbles and foam will come out of that shoot."

"Right..."

"The scariest part of the house will be on this end, and that's when there are a few other workers that act like zombies and will start to nibble on people's heads."

"Of course- Wait, did you just say nibble?"

"Uhn!"

First, Kurosaki Ichigo did _not_ apply for this job willingly. His father signed him up for this on the account of a favor for this woman, his "boss" as it may be. Something about his scary face and how he needed to get his own spending money for Christmas, _either way_, his good reasons for being here were minimal to none.

Second, this Inoue Orihime character was the softest woman he'd ever met. She worked- no, _owned_ this haunted house, and she's explaining to him what part of the ride the bubbles come out.

Unless those bubbles and foam were going to be made of acid, Ichigo didn't think they'd be scaring _anyone._

"Has it ever occurred to you that having people chew at the guest's heads could get you and them arrested for assault?" He asked bluntly, not caring at all whether she would give him a funny look and fire him on the spot. Hell, the sooner he got out of here, the better. Working for holiday-themed events never did go well for him, and sitting in the front yard scaring little kids as they came by seemed like a hell of a better idea than doing this.

But her expression read differently than he'd expected. He genuinely expected her to scrunch her brows and pout her lips, possibly starting a temper tantrum, _just_ because she was a 25 year old woman that acted like a child. The expression instead was that of a bit of curiosity and some disappointment. It was enough to make him scowl harder with his heartstrings being tugged just a bit. He wasn't going to lie, it was an honest-to-god pained expression.

"Never mind, just what's next?" He scoffed, keeping his voice low. He would've started going ahead of her just so he could hide the slight burning of his cheeks, but he knew he would immediately get lost if he did. She knew this place like the back of her hand, and he, being a newbie, well... didn't.

Her previous fervor about her house started right back up and she began to walk ahead of him with a subtle bounce to her step. She kept rambling on about the features and mechanics of a "super room" they just put in, but Ichigo was growing too focused with her to listen about the layout of the building.

Perhaps she was a bit childish and seemingly immature, seeing as she was supposed to be acting 25, but she was awkwardly intriguing anyways. He was definitely aware of her looks, which made it only more baffling how a girl like her could look that good and act so weird.

Maybe it was _because_ she didn't act her age, he found her a bit interesting. His thought process stopped as she halted in front of him and pointed to the next door, a confident look on her face. The strawberry just about ran into her too if he didn't snap out of it soon enough.

"And that... That, Kurosaki-san, is... _The room._"

"... The room?" He asked quietly, trying not to make the confusion in his voice obvious.

"YES! The room!" She suddenly yelled out, throwing her hands into the air. For those who ask and may already know the strength of haunted house owner, Inoue Orihime, the answer is _yes_, she did punch him square in the jaw, sending him back a few feet. Ichigo could've _sworn_ he felt a whole lot of teeth rattle in his mouth and it wasn't too long until he could taste the all-too familiar bitter, coppery taste in his mouth that was blood.

"F-Fuck..." He swore to himself out of pain, not intentionally mad at her at all. He was just pissed because it hurt so much. How the hell did she have a punch like that?

"Ah," she let out a small gasp upon noticing she hit something behind her, and quite hard at that. "Kurosaki-san, did you just -" She was in the middle of asking the question of the century when she saw her new temp on the floor, an unsightly trail of blood oozing from his lips. "Kurosaki-san!" She cried, rushing to his side almost immediately.

Inwardly groaning, Ichigo let his eyes roll at her obliviousness to her own strength. "I'm fine, Inoue." He told her gruffly, still holding his jaw quite tenderly. "But you seriously have one hell of a hand," he added at the end, unsure himself of whether it was a compliment or a vague insult.

He could see tears welling up in the corner of her eyes and he immediately regretted his words. Clearly she didn't punch her workers very often, or if she did, she cried an awful lot. Ichigo was about to open his mouth and continue spouting what would surely be more unhelpful gibberish, but she sniffled and stood up. The same tiny hand that had sent him flying just moments ago was now held out in front of him, motioning he should take it so she could help him up. He, for some odd reason, was reluctant in taking it, but when he did, all he thought of was how small and soft it was in his own, quite larger hand.

"Let's go, Kurosaki-san," Orihime sniffled again, using her free hand to wipe a few stray tears. "We need to get back to the front so we can get you an ice pack."

He didn't want to admit it, but her crying was bothering him a lot. Not in an annoying way, but it made him feel like he was the biggest jerk in the history of jerks even though it was her that had the super punch. "O-Oi, why are you crying?" He had to ask, unable to keep it in any longer.

She dropped the slightly damp hand just a bit to look at him with big, confused gray eyes. "You're bleeding," she told him simply.

"Yeah, but that really doesn't answer my question," he replied right back to her, trying really hard to ignore the dull throbbing in his cheek as he spoke. Oddly enough, she didn't say anything back but only managed to flush a light pink before spinning on her heals to go back the way they came. He tried to keep his mouth shut, seeing as it hurt less when he didn't move it much, but what was odd was that she never explained the secret room, nor said a word in general on the way back.

But what definitely said a lot without speaking a word was the fact she continued to hold onto his hand all the way back to the front of the house.

* * *

As much as he thought no one would come to her haunted house, there had been a lot of families with children that showed up. Instead of screams and horrified squeals like there usually was supposed to be in an attraction like this, there were giggles and fits of laughter, both from children and adults alike. The plethora of people definitely explained how she managed to stay afloat with this "side business" of hers.

Letting out a pained sigh, the redheaded teen held the chilled ice pack closer to his face as he lounged in his fold-out chair. Surprisingly, his job had been to sit in the chair between the killer daisies exhibit and mutant cupcakes robots and press a button every three minutes to send out a multitude of bubbles. Yes, the house was filled with bubbles most of the time due to the many parts of the place using bubble machines, but if that's what gave the families their kicks, he wouldn't question it.

Why she had given him such an easy job, he didn't know. He had offered to run the explosion of glittered football players, which had to be reset every five minutes due to technical issues that had yet to be fixed, but she declined. She also told him no when he offered to stay in _"The Room"_, even though he didn't know what was in it. She just shook her head way too fast and told him to stay with the bubbles. "It's safer," he remembers her telling him.

This was by far the most bizarre job he'd ever had before, especially considering it was supposed to be a haunted house that turned more into a fun house, but oddly enough... He really didn't mind it. He was even growing embarrassed at the idea of asking her if he could come back and work here again. But he didn't know if he wanted to come back because of how easy it was with the decent pay, or because of her – Orihime, the haunted house owner.

Well, for now it would be something he'd figure out later. Now he needed to focus on his job (as well as his new black and blue bruise from the punch), rather than his curiosity over a pretty, yet childish haunted house owner.

Only, he would've been able to focus if someone didn't keep poking him in the back from behind. After grumbling and pressing the bubble button again, he snapped around to see who exactly it was prodding him. Lone behold, no one was there. He could only stare at the empty space before he scratched at his head confusedly and turned back around, waiting for another few minutes to pass. They did, and he hit his button like he was supposed to, but at the same time, there was another poke.

"Just who the hell is doing that?" He scoffed to himself, turning back around to find more empty space, but a small giggle rang into his ears.

For a short moment, he left his post to figure out the stupid poking and giggling from nowhere, leaving his ice pack behind. It wasn't right to assume, but he thought Orihime wouldn't mind too much at all. She even said he could go away for a bit, if he really needed to, as long as he wasn't gone for extremely long periods of time. It would be short, he told himself, so it wouldn't be a big deal to leave for a moment.

"Who's there?" He asked into almost silence, and again, received a small giggle as a response. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on it. And he knew it definitely couldn't be Orihime, since she was monitoring the front at all times.

A few steps ahead of him and a turn to the left would've been the smart choice. However, he took a right instead and ran into a very unfamiliar frozen figurine with the face resembling the human face without the skin on it. He did indeed jump back a bit, finding it to be a bit gruesome and bloody, but it quickly passed. It was just a damn figurine, for heaven's sake, he didn't need to get so wigged out by it.

"Heh... Didn't know Inoue actually had something this scary in the house," he chuckled to himself as he took a step closer to the thing. He ran his finger over the plastic face, a small smile growing on his face. "Damn, this could be fun to freak people out with though." Looking at the rest of it, the entire thing appeared to be a life-sized statue of a female that looked like it walked right out of the morgue. But was this the same thing that gave out those giggles from earlier?

It already looked a bit too heavy to just turn around, so he wrapped his arms around the mannequin and felt up the back in search for the battery pack. After finding nothing initially, he figured it was in the base of the neck, since that was the only other logical place.

But something was odd as he used both hands to search for it, paying no mind at just how close he was to the doll. The skin on the neck of this thing was way too soft to be that of a doll's. Did Orihime maybe get it from overseas or something? It was like a high-class statue.

Chills and shivers went up his spine as fingers grazed his own back and the mannequin leaned it's head forward, the cool plastic on the crook of his neck. It giggled again before whispering in a low tone, "Kuuuuroooo-saaaaaakiiiii..."

Kurosaki Ichigo like to say he wasn't easily scared by these things, but he was just so unsuspecting of this he yelped quite loudly and jumped backwards yet again, taking the so-called "statue" with him in the process. It screamed just as loudly and it ended up beneath him, hands flailing around and just about punching him in the exact same spot as before.

He panted heavily with his heart racing as he quickly pinned the hands above the head, scowling harder than he ever had in his lifetime. "Who the fuck do you think you are, trying to scare the shit out of me like tha-"

"K-Kurosaki-san! I-It's me!" A small, muffled voice came from behind the mask. The familiarity of _that_ voice made his eyes widen. He loosened his grip on the wrists and shifted it so he could just hold them with one hand, so his free one could peel off the mask and unveil the person beneath.

_Fuck._

He should've seen it coming.

Orihime was currently pinned beneath him, her big gray eyes just as startled as his probably were while sticky, sweaty strands of auburn stuck to her face. She seemed to breathe just as deeply as she looked up at him for a moment, before her eyes shifted from confirmation to apologies.

"I-I'm so sorry, Kurosaki-san!" She apologized quietly, feeling her wrists become free again as he shifted off of her. "I was just trying to get you into the spirit..."

At the moment, he wasn't answering her. It wasn't because he was angry, oh no, he wasn't angry at all.

He was still outright freaked by what _she_ had managed to accomplish. Inoue Orihime, a woman he had known for no more than 12 hours, scared the hell out of him. Anyone that actually knew him personally would know that it took a lot to get him that freaked.

"A-And... I'm sorry for earlier..."

Instinctively, he raised his hand to graze the bruise and rolled his eyes back to her. "It was an accident, Inoue," he scoffed lightly, seeing her return to a sitting position. It seemed she felt genuinely bad for this round as well, seeing as she refused to meet his eyes at all.

"I-I also had another motive for doing what I did too..." Orihime quietly confessed, her fingers bunching up the fabric of the white, but fakely bloodied tunic she wore. Her words interested him again and he tried to look hard at her, despite it being relatively dark.

"And...?"

"I-I was hoping..." She started slowly, doing her best to hold back her stutters. "I-If I got you scared enough, you might want to come back and work here again... I wanted to show you how fun it could be here."

Ichigo was surprised at her bold statement. He just about told her this place seemed fun anyways, tricks or not, but he bit his tongue and glanced away again, his cheeks starting to burn like earlier.

"I was going to stay longer anyways..." He told her. Earlier he wasn't sure if he was going to ask to stay here longer, but it looks like he answered both their questions anyways without a second thought. He didn't even need to look at her to hear the loud gasp from her mouth.

"R-Really?" Orihime suddenly sounded much more enthusiastic, but it only made Ichigo grow more flushed. Flustered, he stood to his feet quite quickly with the desire to get back to his post quickly.

"I-I should really get back to the bubbles," Ichigo spoke quickly, soon finding just how lame that sounded, even if it was just to her.

"Gambatte!" She cried out to him as he distanced himself, only making him bring his hand up to his face and a loud _slap_ resounding through the otherwise quiet area. But behind that hand, a small, very stupid grin grew. A very _excited _smile about the fact he would be working longer here with Inoue Orihime, haunted house owner, and he knew one thing was for sure.

Smiles in a place like this were contagious, because he could hear her cheering herself on as well just down the hall.

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	2. Rain

_This week's was "Rain" and I chose Nagi's prompt again with: **"Orihime is in the middle of a cross-country road trip and her car swerves off the road (because of the rain) and knocked unconscious. She wakes up to find herself looking straight at Ichigo." **I'm thinking I might be skipping over the last prompt for now, only because I can't think of a darn thing to do with any of them... But with any luck, I'll write up a LYD chapter soon and then another prompt for here... Maybe.

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_

From college, back to Karakura; the plan was to drive there with minimal pit stops, regardless of weather conditions or road construction. Orihime had done the math and it was indeed cheaper to drive back home rather than fly or go by train. With what she was bringing back with her anyway, it would've proved to be immensely difficult to switch from train to train.

She hadn't driven such long distances before, so the healer was just a bit nervous about how all this would go down. Would it go smoothly and perfect? Or would she run into Hanshin Tigers and be forced to pull over and abandon her car so they could all get into it like one of those clown cars and travel to their next game?

With her slender fingers gripping the steering wheel, Orihime forced herself to take a deep breath. Things were going great now, why would things change?

_Boom._

The small bout of thunder caused Orihime to jump in her seat and swerve slightly to the right of the road, barely skimming onto the shoulder. It was just so sunny a moment ago, why was it looking so menacing right now? Looking out her rear-view mirror, the auburn-haired student assessed that if she kept up with her current pace, she _might_ be able to outrace the storm. She couldn't afford to pull over and wait for it to pass. It was already getting somewhat dark, and she was getting close to being back in Karakura.

But small raindrops could be heard on her windshield as she continued to truck along. Frowning slightly, she already noted she was going around 65 miles per hour on the freeway and really didn't want to go any faster than that. It seemed like the storm wanted to keep up with her, or even catch up, so Orihime was starting to revaluate the current situation. Pull over and be safe, but not be able to get back to Karakura until tomorrow? Or keep on driving before it got dark, with the slight risk she could get into an accident. The latter seemed like the best idea, seeing as she'd get there much quicker if she kept on going.

The rain didn't take long to get heavier and fall down at a rapid pace. The gusts of wind didn't help either, which only made Orihime wish there was a faster setting than 'fast' for her windshield wipers. She didn't want to joke around about the situation, but it was really raining cats and dogs out there.

Just then, Orihime hit a big pile of water and began to hydroplane, causing her swerve off to her right again, off the shoulder and into the ravine. Things just started to play out so slowly during the whole ordeal, seeing patches of mud and grass fly up from blow her wheels, her car slipping and sliding from the rain. Her car ended up turning around and gliding backwards instead due to the rain and sogginess of everything. Even though everything played out in slow-motion, Orihime still couldn't stop herself from lurching forward and hitting her head against the steering wheel.

That's when everything turned black.

* * *

When Orihime thought she'd wake up, she thought she'd be in a very bright place or at least in her car, dark and in the rain. Needless to say, she thought she was completely dreaming when her eyes fluttered open to find warm, chocolate brown eyes staring right back at her. Brown eyes and bright, all-too familiar orange hair.

"... Kurosaki-kun?" She croaked, her oddly sore hands gripping unfamiliar fabric beneath her. Her eyes kept half-lidded due to fatigue, but she still did her best to keep them open. Ichigo gave her a small, but very reassuring smile as he finished placing a cool washcloth on her forehead.

"Hey Inoue..." He breathed, flattening down the cloth just slightly to keep it there. "Glad to see you're awake." The funny thing was his tone was exactly that – genuinely happy she was awake. Scrunching her face into an awkward smile, she tried to force herself into a sitting position.

"W-Where am I?" Orihime stuttered lightly, feeling her body, but mainly her head, ache all over. His warm, large hands caught her shoulders and quickly, but gently pushed her back down onto the slightly reclined bed.

"At our clinic," he answered, making sure she was lying back down again before readjusting her wet rag. "Stay still, Inoue. You'll be hurting worse if you force yourself." She just tried to nod subtly before letting her eyes flutter closed again. She was very much awake, but it felt as if her eyelids were being dragged down by small weights.

She couldn't entirely recall what had happened. The last thing she remembered was her hands gripping the steering wheel as she hit a large puddle of water, but the rest after that was a blur. "What happened?" Her voice was quiet as she asked the innocent question. She heard him sigh, almost as if in distress, before feeling him pull up the blanket further onto her form.

"You tell me..." His voice was just as hushed while he looked over at her with kind, but concerned eyes. "My dad got a call about a car accident just outside of town and sent me to go check it out. It must've been fate or something, because I couldn't believe my eyes to see you."

Merely humming in understanding, Orihime let of a soft sigh at the generosity of Ichigo's and how it was truly some greater power that had him find her on the side of the road.

"I'll let you be," Ichigo cut in, letting Orihime hear only him rising from his chair. "You should rest for a while." Orihime managed to open her eyes just a bit to catch him slowly, but surely making his way towards the door.

"W-Will you be here when I wake up?" She asked quietly, her cheeks already burning from such a bold question. He seemed to take no mind to it and gave her another smile while nodding.

"Of course..." His voice was sincere as he spoke. "Just call me when you need me."

And with that, he left Orihime in the room alone. She couldn't help but pull the blanket over her red face, continually blushing from his kind words. Maybe it wasn't the best way they could've met up, but at least he was the first person he saw.

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	3. Literature

_**.theme/prompt.** Literature/__"Orihime is busy working on the rough draft for a romance novel, but accidentally leaves it behind when rushing home from school. Noticing the notebook on her desk, Ichigo decides to take a peek at what's inside." - Nagicakes. :)_

* * *

_Her first kiss with him was everything she had ever dreamed of. Slow, tender, gentle; she took and she gave, and he did just the same. With her lips meeting his, compassionate, yet deliciously forceful at the same time, she wished this moment would never end. If anything, there was only one last thing that could make this even better._

_She regretfully pulled away; her cheeks dusted a pink color while her lips pouted in a nervous manner. It was now or never, and she didn't want to wait another five lifetimes to say it. _

"_I... I love you."_

"Orihime!" A feminine voice called out, startling the healer and making her jump in her seat. Orihime's heart was already racing from her climactic scene for her novel, and her best friend, Tatsuki, scared the living daylights out of her. Needless to say, it didn't help the situation, and she about went into cardiac arrest at the sudden yell of her name.

"M-Mou, Tatsuki-chan! Don't scare me like that!" Orihime pleaded, using one hand to close the notebook in front of her and the other to rest above her breast, as to still her rapidly beating heart. The martial artist rolled her eyes from the doorway.

"You're the one that wanted to get home right away," she scoffed, pointing to the clock. "Weren't you and I going to your place to watch that new show, uh..." Tatsuki paused trying to recall what the name was. Orihime squeaked in surprise, her honey brown eyes darting to the clock. She was right! If they didn't get back to her place soon, they'd miss the beginning of the new TV show she'd wanted to watch for weeks. It was all she ever talked about as of late!

"Super Powered Toucans from Pluto!" Orihime squealed, slamming her hands down on her light brown desk and forcing herself from her seat. "We need to go, Tatsuki-chan!" She pulled out her notepads and textbooks from her desk, not bothering to throw them in her book bag. She needed to get home, not stay here and idly put things away properly. Despite dropping a few items, papers and pencils, and having to pick them up, the redheaded healer successfully darted out the door with her friend, leaving almost a completely empty classroom behind her.

Well, almost empty. Left behind were a few random students who were making their way out the door themselves, and one shinigami, Kurosaki Ichigo. He had been keeping an eye on Orihime for a while now and he found it particularly odd how she hadn't pulled her nose from the red notebook she'd been scribbling in all day. What he found even odder was how she had left it on her desk to go with Tatsuki, even though she'd been adamant about keeping it on her at all times.

Forcing himself from his own seat, the berry boy packed his things, finding his eyes dragging back to her now empty desk and the notebook that sat perched on the desktop. It was just for school, he told himself, nothing more. Yet if it was just for school, why was he so damn curious about it?

Scowling to himself, Ichigo grabbed the handles of his bag and sighed, figuring he'd leave as well and go home, just like everyone else had. Funny how his feet directed him right towards her desk, leading him and making him stare hard at the notebook all over again.

_This is fucking annoying_, he told himself, growling. He really shouldn't be even _tempted_ to look at other people's things, much less Orihime's. But after his awareness of her seemed to be heightened lately, his curiosity only grew.

Okay, so what was one peek going to hurt?

Tentatively sitting himself in her spot, he couldn't help but feel heat tug at his cheeks while thinking, _I should_ not_ be sitting here_. It was so much different in her spot, he noted. While he sat in the middle of the crowded classroom, surrounded by so many other classmates, Orihime had gotten lucky and sat next to the window, where he openly admitted was much more relaxing. Not to mention she could really do anything in this spot and more than likely get away with it.

Ichigo rolled his eyes, letting the whole thought process on her location in the classroom float away so it could be quickly replaced with that nagging curiosity over the notebook again. Letting his hands drift over the red cover for a moment, he mentally asked himself if it was _really_ right to be digging through her stuff like this. She was the last person he'd want to upset because he didn't ask for permission, but on the other hand... He hadn't been able to talk to her all that often, all because of this darn little book, and he admittedly missed hearing her babble on about the most random things. After not being able to talk to her, he figured the least he deserved was to see just a bit of what she was so obsessed with.

Swallowing thickly and taking a mental step of courage, he opened the front cover and unknowingly held his breath. If anything, he assumed it was for school, but Ichigo was surprised to see a practically blank page, aside with one word scrawled onto the first page.

_Beloved._

It was a simple word, yet for some odd reason, it only intrigued him further. Why would she write one single word, and _that_ word of all of them, for that matter? She was a kind, gentle person, but the notion of her writing something about 'beloved' made him wonder what she was doing with this notebook.

There were many used, written on pages following that first, and even though the guilt nagged at him for even daring to look at it in the first place, Kurosaki Ichigo flipped to the next page, determined to read the rest.

* * *

Tatsuki had gone home long ago, which made it all that much easier for Orihime to tear her apartment apart. Why, may one person ask? She wasn't a person to randomly rip apart her home, but she had a reason. It was a very good reason; and it was because she couldn't find her rough draft copy of her manuscript.

She had to stop her search and rescue for a moment to flick on the nearby light. The sun was setting and the rooms were getting dark. She very well couldn't have looked for her precious notebook in the dark.

That notebook was precious for more reasons than one. To start, it was something Orihime had started on a whim – a novel; romantic one, at that. She thought she'd try writing out romance, something she'd daydreamed about before (suspiciously about a redheaded shinigami). At first, she merely put her ideas with different characters, but after a while, it became filled with her own hopes and dreams, all behind a fictional name to hide the real truth. Should one of her friends, or heaven forbid, Ichigo, stumble upon her writing, she felt she'd need to crawl into a hole and never come out due to embarrassment.

This was why she was tearing apart her apartment in desperation to find the book. She could've _sworn_ she had grabbed it with the rest of her textbooks as she left school earlier, but now she doubted herself. And if she recalled even further, wasn't Ichigo still in the room when she left? Oh dear, what if he found it and read through it all? He was a smart person and no doubt he'd easily be able to distinguish himself with her in her writing.

A loud knock to her door sent her heart racing, faster than it was before at the idea of Ichigo finding her book. Jumping to her feet, Orihime practically ran to the door, throwing it open while forcing a smile. "H-hello!" She chirped, appearing enthusiastic at first, but once she realized who it was, her face fell.

Ichigo, with a red notebook in his right hand.

"Kurosaki-kun!" She yelped, straightening her posture at the sight of his tall form. "W-What are you doing here?" Not that she minded in the least to have him over here, at her place, but she was still a woman on a mission, and her mission just drastically changed from ripping her place apart, to making sure he hadn't read her story.

Holding up the notebook, he gave her a half-hearted, sheepish smile. "You forgot this at school," he told her, handing it over to her. It was no surprise that she had snatched it right out of his hands, a heavy blush settled on her cheeks.

"T-Thank you!" Orihime smiled, doing her best to hold back the hindering stutter. "I've been looking for this all afternoon!" She continued to ramble on as she flipped through the multitude of pages, making sure all of them were there. Sighing in relief, Orihime put on a calmer, grateful smile compared to her insistently worried one from before. "You don't know how much this me-" She had been trying to continue the conversation when out of the blue, he held her chin between his thumb and index finger, lifting her head to see him eye to eye. Ichigo's amber brown eyes smoldered darkly, staring hard into hers. Searching his eyes nervously, her tongue darted out to wet her suddenly dry lips. "K-Kurosaki-kun?"

He pressed forward and met his lips with hers. It was both of their first kisses, unbeknownst to one another, so it was inexperienced and sloppy, but still more amazing than either one of them had ever imagined. Kissing her just a bit harder, Ichigo slanted his lips sideways slightly to kiss her just a bit deeper, experimentally. While he was thoroughly enjoying this, the reaction she had was quite different.

Orihime had dropped her notebook to the ground, forgotten as her eyes remained wide and frozen, still taking in the fact that _Kurosaki Ichigo just kissed her._ Of all people, _he_ was the one to instigate the lip-lock. Him. The boy she loved and promised to love for five lifetimes over.

As he pulled away, he could only smirk while sporting his own faded shade of red. He hadn't meant to embarrass her so bad, but her facial expression was quite amusing.

"You write very well, Inoue..." He told her, turning his back and facing the stairs, waving her goodbye. "I'd like to see the ending of your story." Sauntering down the stairs, Ichigo left just as quickly as he came, leaving Orihime still in shock over what just happened. She even needed to collapse against the door, falling to the ground in astonishment. The red notebook, the one with her secret dreams and desires lay next to her, and she _knew_ it was taunting her, egging her on to complete it. Maybe she could stand to finish it quicker than she originally hoped to.

At least she didn't need to worry about whether Ichigo read her story or not anymore.

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	4. I'll Protect You

_Theme: "I'll protect you" ; Prompt: "__Rewrite a scene from the manga with your personal twist including a moment in which Ichigo makes a promise of protection." By Codegal~

* * *

_

When Orihime had gone to Hueco Mundo, she never thought Ichigo and the others would come to rescue her. Needless to say, the idea of the said shinigami holding her by the waist and hoisting her over his shoulder was the _farthest_ idea, daydream even, from her mind. She could only flail wildly and sputter out incoherent babbling on how she was heavy and he shouldn't be lifting her. She even managed to tell him, albeit all over the place, that if he didn't put her down, his spine would surely telescope.

After sending Nel off to scout the ground from the other side of the demolished building, Ichigo was bent on keeping her in one spot; that perch on his shoulder, that is. Being Orihime, the epitome of enthusiasm and wild gestures, especially around one berry boy, she continued to try to gain his attention and persist that she was too heavy for him. She would've liked to mention how that large hand of hers on her thigh was incredibly odd, yet definitely okay in her book, but seeing as it could've ended in similar embarrassment, she let the thought slide.

"Inoue," Ichigo's gruff voice called her name, making her halt her moving and instead, stay still like a good girl. She had open ears as to whatever he would say, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to hear too well due to the loud pounding and rushing of blood to her ears. (It wasn't because she was slightly upside-down at times, but because _any_ girl would be mortified, in a good way, beyond belief by being closely held by the boy she loved.)

"H-Hai, Kurosaki-kun?" Her voice squeaked and she knew it. Trying to crane her neck to look at him, she was forced to lay her palms and digits flat on his back to stay still. The body heat radiating from underneath his shihakusho didn't go unnoticed.

"Don't turn around," his voice was firm, definitely different from the soft, gentle voice he had when he expressed his relief over her being okay. "... Just listen." However, the last part melted into that same tone from before, and it made her feel a little bit better.

However, as she tried to listen, he wasn't really speaking. In fact, there was no 'really speaking', he wasn't speaking at all. Had she imagined that last part and only spoke of the former, so she wouldn't harm herself for some reason by turning around? A suddenly tightened grip on her waist made her think otherwise, and she still continued to wait and listen.

"... You're not... You're sure you're not hurt?" Ichigo asked, his voice low. At the current moment, what ran through his head were Grimmjow's words of "how she was possibly messed up on the inside". He knew he had just asked her that same question, but that arrancar's notion of her possibly changed obviously didn't sit well with him.

Her expression fell when he inquired yet again, yet Orihime licked at her suddenly dry lips and nodded, even though he couldn't exactly see. "I'm just fine!" She tried to sound cheerful for him, because the previous fight made him sound just a bit stressed.

A soft sigh escaped his lips and he startled her by taking a few steps closer to the edge on his own, almost as if she wasn't propped onto his shoulder at all. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to get here quicker." His voice was so quiet, Orihime just about missed it. It was as if it was a fleeting comment more than anything.

"Ah, but Kurosaki-kun-"

"But this'll be over quick," his voice suddenly sounded more confident, cutting her off, but not intentionally. "And then you'll be safe... For good, that is." Inwardly, Ichigo continued to beat himself up on the inside for not being able to rescue her in a timelier manner. He'd promised to protect her before she got kidnapped, but much good that did.

Calling back Nel over, Ichigo paid no mind to Orihime's squirming on his shoulder. So far he had a lot more on his mind he really couldn't say, only because it wasn't the right time. As much as he knew she wriggled around in embarrassment, he was thinking of the upcoming fights, and how once they were done, everything would fall back into place again. That included her safety.

"I'll protect you..." Ichigo mumbled again as they both watched Nel trot back over to them with a grin. With widened eyes, Orihime's heart beat rapidly in her chest and she bit her bottom lip to avoid any nervous squeaks from escaping. "I mean it."

She knew he did, she always trusted him, but it was those little words of reassurance that made her smile.

.

.

.


	5. Rain 2

_Theme: Rain - Prompt: "A kiss in the rain" from fly

* * *

_

He knew that whenever the 'this day can't get any worse' thought passed through his head, life would always have a way to screw him over even worse than before. Not only did he find out he just failed a recent exam and he practically fell down a flight of stairs he stepped right out the doors to find it was raining outside, and _hard._ And he didn't have an umbrella.

Ichigo knew he would jinx himself by saying it, but today really could not get any worse.

A head of familiar auburn caught his eye. Turning his neck ever so slightly, he saw Orihime stepping out the doors just the same. The only thing different was that she looked excited about the rain _and _had an umbrella, whereas he was cranky, knowing very well he was going to get wet on the way home.

Orihime glanced over his way, making Ichigo jump and avert his gaze. The last thing he wanted to be caught doing was staring at her. If Tatsuki was around, she'd probably label it 'ogling' instead. A small heat rose to his cheeks as he could feel her walking towards him. The gentle reiatsu he felt almost all the time was only more prominent the closer she moved.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime chirped, waving her hand shyly. At her greeting, Ichigo couldn't just ignore her, so he forced himself to look at her again and raise a hand in response.

After Tatsuki's little slip-up last week, it was hard to think around Orihime. He and his martial artist friend were at the arcade last week, playing games and chatting, when she accidentally let it slip that Orihime had feelings for him. Of course Tatsuki was mortified that she let her secret out, but that mortification soon melted into anger, and she threatened to hurt Ichigo if he broke Orihime's heart.

How could he break her heart if he didn't even know how he felt about her? They were friends, that was for sure, and somehow their relationship felt different than a normal friendship, but he didn't know if that was exactly called infatuation.

Regardless, Ichigo had grown very self-conscious around the kind healer. Too much thinking had him 'freaking out' quite a bit lately.

"Don't you just love the rain, Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime's smile was wide as a small blush dusted her cheeks. For some reason, Ichigo froze at her uttering the word 'love'. He knew he couldn't stay silent forever though, and shook his head gruffly.

"Uh, not really..." He replied, bringing his risen hand from before to rub the muscles in his neck. He couldn't help but recall his mother's death when the rain poured, so the weather left a bitter taste in his mouth. Ichigo could see Orihime's smile waver ever so slightly at his flipped response, and he suddenly felt he needed to take it back somehow, or at least say something in addition. "But, I guess it's okay to watch from indoors?" He added, not even knowing himself if he liked rain more while watching it from the inside out. "You don't get soaked that way."

The healer's expression lit up again, which gave him some relief. "That's true! I do like the noise it makes as it hits the window! And sometimes when it's thundering a bit, it shakes the house!"

Ichigo nodded solemnly to himself as he glanced back at the rain in front of them. On the inside, his heart dropped again at the idea of having to run all the way to his house, knowing very well he'd get soaked no matter how quickly he got home.

"Ah, did you forget your umbrella, Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime's sweet voice inquired. Ichigo quickly felt embarrassed for not bringing it, but he could only nod again.

"Yeah. Forecast yesterday said it'd be 70 and sunny, so I didn't think I'd need it," he explained. "Why did you bring yours, Inoue?"

"Oh, just a feeling I got," she grinned, moving to pop open the umbrella of hers. Ichigo raised an eyebrow at her response. While it proved to be right just once, he still was a bit odd about those intuitions of hers. She was about to take a step off the concrete before she stopped and glanced back at Ichigo. "Aren't you coming, Kurosaki-kun?" Ichigo was never aware Orihime was willing to share her umbrella with him. He merely pointed at her covering, then at himself with raised brows before she nodded excitedly.

Ichigo stepped beneath the umbrella, joining her. He could feel that heat rising to his cheeks again. Or maybe it was her body heat that was radiating onto his skin that made him feel warm all of a sudden. They _were_ standing pretty close.

Coughing to himself, feeling awkward, he and Orihime started on their way home.

* * *

Most of the walk had been pretty silent for the most part, which made Ichigo wonder whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. The silence ended up leaving him in his thoughts, which led him to over think things entirely. Should he initiate conversation? What if Orihime didn't want to talk, which was why she was quiet in the first place? Or maybe she had news that left the usually bubbly healer in a quiet state?

Anything and everything that passed his mind left him with a rapidly beating heart, nervous as it was. It was only when Orihime hummed to herself in content that he snapped from his stupor.

"This is nice," she commented.

_What's nice? The rain or walking with me? _He wondered, over thinking things again. _T-There's no way it could be me, dumbass! Inoue may have feelings for me, but that doesn't mean she thinks about m-_

"What do you think?" Her continuation broke him from his thoughts yet again.

"H-Huh? Oh, yeah, it is..." He replied. Inwardly, he told himself that was the _stupidest_ response he'd ever given her.

Ichigo continued to take steps forward, scowl prominently on his face. It was only when he felt drops of rain hitting his head that he realized he'd walked from under the umbrella while Orihime still stood back a few paces. She wore a nervous-looking expression, yet at the same time, determined.

"Inoue?"

"I-I... I'm sorry I've been quiet while we were walking, Kurosaki-kun!" She suddenly exclaimed, her cheeks growing a noticeable red. "I've had a lot on my mind..." Ichigo merely shrugged and took steps back towards her, to get under the umbrella.

"Its okay, Inoue. I've been lost in my thoughts too." _A little _too _lost._ "What were you thinking about?" In the pit of his stomach, he felt he'd somehow regret asking her about it, but he let it slip anyways. Orihime looked at him shyly, her big gray eyes just about making Ichigo's face turn bright red.

"D-Do you really want to know?" She asked quietly. Ichigo definitely felt the tension about them both change, and he swallowed thickly as the possibilities of what she was thinking about flood into his mind. He nodded anyway, slow and slightly unsure.

That was when Orihime dropped both her book bag and umbrella to the ground, leaving them unattended as she raised to her toes and planted her hands on his broad shoulders for support. Everything after that seemed to be going in slow motion for Ichigo, because he could see her leisurely, yet confidently pressing a kiss to his frozen lips. He remained that way, letting himself go through an inner freak out before finding himself drop his school bag as well and grabbing a hold of her waist to pull her closer. His eyes fluttered closed as he kissed her back, holding her small, curvy form to his hard, angled one.

A week ago, Ichigo couldn't determine for the life of him whether he thought of Orihime as more of a friend; not even ten minutes ago, he still didn't have an idea. However, he noticed this small, simple kiss in the rain was more than simple. It spoke words to her, and it clarified things for him.

_I may love Inoue Orihime._

_._

_._

_.  
_


	6. Fairy Tale

_Theme: Fairy Tales; Prompt: "__A comedic take on Little Red Riding Hood, where Orihime is Little Red and Ichigo is the Big Bad Wolf. Sexual innuendos are highly encouraged. 3" by Nagi.

* * *

_

Inoue Orihime loved fairy tales. She reveled in the idea of playful magic and tricky sorcery, as well as how the hero (or heroine) would defeat the evil character in the story. But above all, Orihime found herself immersed in the romance aspect of the story. For some reason, she thought the idea of being awakened by the kiss of a prince to be a perfect way to open your eyes and wake to see the world. Who wouldn't like waking up to see a hot guy inches away from your lips? It was an embarrassing thought, but it intrigued her nonetheless.

Such romance she truly loved had her nose buried deep in a fantasy book she found at the library no more than two days ago. She had discovered the original tales of the Brothers Grimm, and as she continued to read, she found it was darker than she'd ever imagined. Still, she found it interesting regardless.

With this, she continued to read on as she trekked through the forest, a girl on a mission. She was sent by distant relatives to bring her grandmother baked goods. A week ago, she could easily say she didn't know she had a grandmother, and even now, she still wasn't so sure she could say she really believed she had a grandmother. However, if her relatives were bent on her having one, she couldn't really complain.

Lifting her eyes from the book for a moment, Orihime recalled how her relatives described her grandmother. Brown hair slicked back with too much gel and cold, piercing eyes. Her grandmother talked to others like she was better than the rest and rambled on with mentions of wanting to be a goddess. She always thought grandmothers were supposed to be happy, old ladies, but they made hers seem like she was the epitome of evil. No wonder Orihime hadn't heard of her before; her relatives made her seem crazy!

A crunch of a branch had her jumping, dropping her book onto the leafy ground. Her big honey-colored eyes darted around, looking at her surroundings to find what the source of the noise could be. Upon finding none, she shrugged it off and blamed it on a squirrel or some other woodland creature. Picking up her book again and resuming her reading, she continued on the path, very unaware of dark brown eyes staring at her from behind a large oak tree.

_Hm... This one actually looks good._

A few yards away stood an odd creature bright in color. The animal stood high and proud with a small smirk on its face, and from a distance, looked to be a man. However, this was no ordinary 'man' watching a girl in the forest. He was a half-wolf, half-man hybrid. Bright orange fur, like the color of his hair, covered his lower half while his top was completely exposed. And of course, a creature like this wouldn't be complete without fluffy ears and a long, furry tail.

Even though this animal was adamant on eating people, as the witch who had turned him into this originally told him he needed to do, he hadn't eaten a full meal in weeks. He could feel his animalistic instincts becoming aroused and he wanted to jump the next human he saw just to satisfy his hunger.

A dark blush rose to his cheeks as he first smacked his head against the oak tree at his way of thinking. _Not jump like _that_, you freaking idiot, _he fumed inwardly to himself. _She's going to be a meal_, he kept telling himself. _N-Not a sexual one either! Dammit!_

Swallowing his pride and moving on, the man-wolf hybrid stalked his way behind other trees before he lost the girl entirely. He hadn't seen a full human around for quite some time, and he'd be damned if he'd let her go now.

Once he managed to catch up to her and hide behind a closer tree, he could clearly see the girl sitting down for a break, reading a picture book she had in her hands. As he glanced around the tree, he could feel his palms growing sweaty. What would he say to her, if he said anything at all? Should he ask what she is doing and why she is in this deep of the forest?

The creature growled to himself as he inwardly beat himself up for acting like a hormonal teen. He wanted a meal, not to ask this human on a date. Perhaps if it was food he wanted, he should just try to be upfront and scare the girl. His stomach grumbling gave him a cue that he should eat her, and quick.

Snapping around the other side of the tree, he threw up his hands and snarled at the petite woman, growling with all the intentions of frightening her until she was frozen with fear.

Unfortunately, her reaction was much less than expected. She wasn't scared at all! Aside from jumping in her place at being startled, she merely stared at him with big eyes. It wasn't a moment later that a smile grew on her face and excitement shimmered in her eyes.

"Hi there!" She chirped, snapping her book closed. He could feel his dignity as a predator shriveling away the more he took in that she wasn't scared.

Trying to growl at her again, he got on all fours instead so he could see her eye-to-eye, and his canines, which were quite long, looked sharp and dangerous. Again, she didn't look unfazed in the slightest. Instead, what she did next was quite surprising.

"Uwah, you have such cute, fuzzy ears!" The girl smiled as she kept her book in her lap and reached her hands out to stroke at the upright ears. Even he knew he'd never moved as fast as he did now, retracting back from her grabby little hands. She managed to get a hold of them for just a few short moments, and that time alone had him blushing. He'd never had someone touch his ears like that, and he really, _really_ hated to admit it, but it felt kinda sort of interesting, in a good way.

"D-Don't touch my ears!" He yelped back, his voice unnaturally high from his current freak-out. He died a little on the inside from that very unmanly moment of sounding like a girl.

"Wow, you have such a high voice too!"

Right about now, he could care less about food. He just wanted to crawl into a deep, dark hole and salvage what masculinity he had left.

"I don't have a high voice," he hissed back, purposely lowering his voice back to normal. "Goddamn it, aren't you scared?"

"Why should I be?" Orihime asked, tilting her head curiously to the side. "You don't look too scary to me."

_Just kill me now._

"You _should_ be scared because I'm going to eat you!" Hopefully she'd get the message as he fixed his stance to appear more menacing. Again, she looked at him curiously, but now a tinge of red dusted her cheeks.

"What kind of eat?" She asked.

"What do you mean what kind of eat? I'm going to _eat_ you, end of story," he growled again, taking a step closer to her form. She took a step back in unison, her eyes now showing some form of fear.

"Well, my aunt, Rangiku-san, says there are a couple types of eating... Um..." Her cheeks grew visibly redder now and he cocked a brow in return. "There's eating food and digesting it, but she also said there's..." Orihime trailed off as her eyes dropped from staring at his brown eyes to the rest of his form. His tan skin made her eyes go wide and the fact that his lower half was nothing but fur made her embarrassed for some reason. Bringing her eyes back up to meet his, she nervously licked at her sudden dry lips. Goodness, how could she get so warm over a man like this so quickly? It was scandalous!

He eventually took the hint and saw her blatant checking out and he took a few steps back again, mortified.

"W-Why the hell would I want to eat you _like that_?" He hissed again, gripping his hands into tight fists. "I mean the digesting kind, and-" He stopped for a moment and growled loud, obviously aggravated. "You are the weirdest girl I've ever met!"

_A-And you're the cutest wolf-boy I've ever met, _Orihime let her mind wander to such terrible things. Her cheeks were burning hot and she couldn't seem to shake it off.

"W-What's your name?" She asked softly. After he managed to recollect himself, he looked at her warily.

"... Kurosaki Ichigo," was all he grumbled. _A cute name to match a cute boy_, she commented on the inside, the smile from before finding its way back to her lips.

"It's a very nice name, Kurosaki-kun," Orihime mumbled to him, twisting her fingers into nervous knots. Ichigo raised a hand to rub at the back of his neck.

"Yeah, well... It's time for you to wake up," he told her back, which quickly caused her to drop her expression.

"Eh?"

And her eyes fluttered open, groggy at first. It took her a few moments to see everything clearly again, and when she came to, she discovered she had fallen asleep while reading her book. Orihime sat on her couch with the Grimm Brother's fairy tale book in her lap. Coincidentally enough, the page she left off was in the middle of Little Red Riding Hood.

Tilting her head to the side while stifling a yawn, Orihime began to wonder why she had such a dream. More importantly, she wondered how exactly she would try to explain this to Ichigo at school tomorrow. Knowing very well she had a dream about her boyfriend clad in nothing but partial fur and adorable ears would make her act very funny around him for a while and he would no doubt ask her about it.

Throwing her hands up to her now burning cheeks, she let out a semi-distressed sigh.

"Mou, what an embarrassing dream!"

.

.

.


	7. Corporate

_Sort of a spin-off of Nagi's prompt about Ichigo taking Orihime out for drinks after work._

* * *

Employee Inoue Orihime wriggled around in her swivel seat, finding herself unable to sit still during the big company meeting being held at the moment. She shifted from one position to the next, folding her legs one way, and then discovering it to be uncomfortable and switching with the other.

Next to her sat Kurosaki Ichigo, a coworker of hers. He was a man able to sit through an entire meeting without shifting, so he found the woman's erratic movements to be somewhat amusing. With his lips curled up into a subtle smile, he choked back a chuckle at her inability to get comfortable.

"-And unless anyone else has any questions, this meeting will be adjourned," the large man in the front bellowed out in front of his workers. A silence fell in the room as each person in it looked at each other as if they were going to bring up a question. "None? Okay, next meeting will be on Monday. Don't be late."

Chatter started up in the room, coworkers talking to each other as they stood up and stretched. Orihime took not time to stand up and stretch herself, trying to loosen her tight muscles caused by sitting in the uncomfortable chair.

"I'm so glad!" She chirped, stretching an arm above her head, her voice a little strained. "It's the weekend!" Ichigo again couldn't help but smile faintly at her and he stood up as well and collected his papers together.

"Got any big plans, Inoue?" He asked, shuffling through the papers. Surprised anyone was listening to her, she turned and faced Ichigo at her side, her cheeks started to burn a little.

"O-Oh no, I don't have any plans..." Orihime stuttered nervously, soon following his actions and began to clear up her stuff. "It'll just be another weekend with movies and ice cream." She paused, glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes.

Inwardly, she hated herself for being so nervous in front of him. They had become good friends after she joined the company earlier that spring. Pouting, Orihime scolded herself for falling so in love with this coworker of hers. Such feelings were forbidden in the office setting, but she couldn't help how they morphed into something greater throughout the past few months.

"You want to go out for drinks tonight?" Ichigo asked. "I've got a slow weekend too, so we might as well have a slow weekend together." Immediately the thought of spending time with him outside of work sent her heart racing and all the gathered papers she had in her hand were dropped right back onto the table.

"I couldn't intrude, Kurosaki-kun!" She squeaked, her voice evident of embarrassment. "It's a nice offer, but I've never-" She stopped herself. She was 26 already; did she want to admit to him that she hadn't ever gone out to drink before? He'd probably think she was weird or something! And it wasn't because she didn't want to try it, but she wanted to be careful and only drink if there was someone else with her.

Ichigo turned to her as he shoved his papers into his bag. "Never gone drinking before?" His face was written with surprise, but his expression was nowhere near judgmental. "That's okay too, Inoue," he told her, his voice sincere. "We'll be responsible, alright?"

If Kurosaki Ichigo of all people was reassuring her they'd be careful, then what would be the harm? Smiling nervously, she beamed at him and nodded. "Okay, let's go then!" Ichigo smirked lightly back at her and they soon left, walking side by side.

* * *

"So what'll it be?" The attractive bartender behind the counter smiled at the two. The blonde man continued to eyeball Orihime in particular, seeming to avoid Ichigo's death glares.

"I'll have a glass of the wine special," Ichigo spoke, his voice a bit tensed as he leaned closer to the woman next to him. "And she'll have a chocolate martini." Orihime hadn't known a single thing about drinks, so on the way over here, she told him she'd be in his hands tonight. She was inwardly glad, because the chocolate martini sounded like a very delicious choice.

"Coming right up," the bartender replied curtly, a little unhappy with how protective Ichigo was being. He left to make the drinks and Orihime sat on the stool, nervously fiddling with her purse.

"I-I didn't know you drank wine, Kurosaki-kun," her voice was quiet and quivering with nervousness. Placing his chin in the palm of his hand, he smirked lightly, a sense of playfulness settling on his expression.

"There are a lot of things you don't know," he teased, watching her face noticeably light up a bright red.

Orihime was incredibly flustered still when the drinks arrived a few minutes later, watching a red wine be put in front of Ichigo and her chocolate martini be placed in front of her. Ichigo took his drink and took a sip of it, his stare never leaving her form. "Aren't you going to try it?" He asked.

She looked down cautiously at her drink, acting as if it was going to explode if she touched it. It looked delicious, but she figured it was only natural to be a little nervous about drinking her first alcoholic beverage. Plus it certainly didn't help Ichigo continued to watch her, waiting for her to try it.

Taking the glass and raising it to her lips, she took a small sip from the tall glass, setting it down moments later. There was a somewhat bitter taste that had zing to it (for lack of a better word to her), with the vague sweetness of chocolate. It was almost as if it was some odd, liquefied bitter chocolate.

"So?" He asked, taking another sip from his glass. "What do you think?" Orihime made a face at him, mixed with some bitter and confused emotions. He just about choked on his wine at her hilarious face.

"It's definitely not like I thought it'd be!" She confessed, still experiencing the aftertaste. "It's sweet, but it's also... Pow!" She punched her fist into the air, further explaining the 'pow' part of her drink. Ichigo laughed at her again and grinned.

"That 'pow' is the vodka in your drink. It really does pack quite a punch, if you drink it too fast," he explained, setting down his drink and staring at it intently. Orihime watched him carefully, her eyes big with curiosity.

"Do you drink out a lot?" She found herself blurting out, and by the time she realized how forward it sounded, it was already too late. Ichigo shrugged as an answer.

"Sometimes. Mainly for the really stressful Friday nights I need to unwind."

Feeling dumbfounded, Orihime turned her attention back to the chocolate-y drink in front of her and picked it up for another sip. It was funny how the second taste was a lot better than the first.

"You said this was your first time?" Ichigo asked, glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"A-Ah, yes... This is my first," she spoke slowly, taking another.

"May I ask why?" He inquired. His tone was far from menacing or the like; he was just plain curious. At the current moment, she also felt no need to hide such information away. It wasn't like it was incriminating or anything.

"I just wanted to be responsible and drink with someone else around. I didn't really want to be alone..." Orihime found herself taking another drink, starting to lose count how many she'd had so far. "It's a silly reason, I know, but I just wanted to be careful."

Shaking his head, Ichigo found himself disagreeing. "It's not silly at all, Inoue. It's actually a really smart thing to do."

Flushing hotly, Orihime couldn't help but smile at him. They had talked in the office before, but things seemed a lot better, light-hearted even, between them. And if she wasn't mistaken, she felt like Ichigo was flirting with her, which sent her heart soaring.

It wasn't too long after Orihime finished her drink and set down the glass with a satisfied grin. "That was really good!" She giggled, her cheeks still burning. "Ah, bartender-san, can I have another one of these?" She called after the man behind the counter.

"Uh, you're looking a little red, Inoue," Ichigo pointed out, his voice laced with concern. "Are you sure you should have another one?" Orihime turned to him with a smile that made his own face burn up.

"It'll just be one more!" She chirped, watching her second chocolate martini being placed in front of her. Ichigo's stomach dropped a bit, a little worried for her. _Yeah, but its _vodka_, and I told you it packs a punch_, he thought as he finished up his glass of wine.

Ichigo just watched Orihime for a while, once in a while catching himself watching her lips as she talked and growing embarrassed. Normally a glass of wine doesn't bother him, but the stuff the bartender gave him must have been different. At least, that's what he told himself. He recognized Orihime as a pretty coworker, but the drinks were making him think other things he normally wouldn't.

It seemed like Orihime finished her second martini just as quickly as she got it, or at least Ichigo was watching her for a lot longer than he thought. Her cheeks were red with her eyes glazed over. She wore a silly smile and was giggling somewhat uncontrollably.

"This was actually really fun!" Orihime grinned, clapping her hands together. "We should do this every week!" If he was completely sober, Ichigo knew he wouldn't have grown nervous at the idea of having drinks with Orihime every week, but now he was red and flustered.

"Uh, sure... Sounds like a plan," he stuttered lamely. Why in the world was he getting so damn embarrassed?

Orihime hopped off her stool, tripping on her own feet as she made a point to stand up and get ready to leave. Ichigo had to catch her by the waist so she wouldn't fall flat on her face. Groaning at the situation, of Orihime being drunk after two drinks, Ichigo quickly slapped some cash on the counter to pay for the service.

"Oh, Kurosaki-kun, I just remembered I left something back at my desk in the office! We need to go back!" Orihime suddenly cried, her eyes wide and brimming with tears as she clutched onto Ichigo's side. He wanted to be on her good side, drunk or not, but he couldn't tell if she was serious or not about leaving things at the office, and if she did, was it so important as to cry about it.

Ichigo had wanted to take her straight home, but he was too easily moved by this woman and instead nodded dumbly. "Fine, we'll go back." His voice was low and slightly slurred as he continued to hold onto her waist. He could feel her body heat from under her button-up shirt, and it took a lot of restraint not to grin like a silly schoolboy at the innocent touch.

Helping her stumbling form, the two turned to leave, and made their way back to the office.

* * *

"I knew it was here somewhere..." Orihime mumbled to herself as she shuffled papers and pencils on her desk. Instead of sitting down to search, she made an avid point to instead bend over and stick her plump tush out instead. It was all in innocence, her position over her desk as she searched, but Ichigo was thinking otherwise.

She swayed back and forth as her slender hands roamed over the desk top, and he felt mesmerized by her actions. _Good god, what's wrong with me tonight?_ It was just his luck when Orihime turned around quickly, spotting him staring at her ass.

"Kurosaki-kun... Are you watching my butt?" Orihime slurred together, her expression reading cute and confused. Ichigo flushed hotly and stuttered out an unintelligent string of words before she snorted and shook her butt again. "It's okay! It's not going to fall off! I appreciate the concern though!"

Orihime was all too aware of his heated eyes after she turned around again to keep searching, and she was actually thrilled about it. She loved feeling so much more confident in front of him! Everything seemed to come easier and he was more approachable with the chocolate martinis in her.

"Ah, I found it!" Orihime chirped, grabbing at the item. She jumped up to sit on her desk, giggling as she swayed back and forth. "It took a while, but I've got it!" Ichigo took a few steps closer, craning his neck to the side in wonder.

"What was it?"

"Chapstick!" She deftly replied, taking off the top and applying some to her lips. "Now my lips look kissable!" He wasn't sure how quite to react to that, but he definitely froze at her reaction, with about a foot of space between them.

_She had me help her all the way back to the office to get her chapstick, at this late at night?_ Scowling, he determined she was a little tipsier than he thought initially.

"What do you think, Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asked sweetly, enunciating each syllable in his name. "Do they look kissable now?"

Ichigo stared at her lips, trying hard to find an answer to the drunken woman in front of him. To be truthful? He had always thought she had kissable lips, in the back of his mind. But how should he reply? Verbally seemed to be the best answer, but his instincts screamed for him to respond physically.

"Kurosaki-kun?" She asked again, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she stared at him with big, doe-like eyes.

_Fuck it._

Ichigo let go of all restraints and closed the gap between them, forcing hot, passionate kisses onto Orihime's luscious mouth. He eased them, yet still hurried, onto her desk, into a lying position, and Ichigo's hands pinned her wrists above her head.

"K-Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime whimpered at his hard kisses. Only she didn't want him to stop; she was trying to kiss him back with just as much fervor, and her voice was so obviously pleasured.

Ichigo devoured her sweet lips, probing his tongue into the wet recesses of her mouth, and she wriggled uncomfortably underneath him. His mouth was doing such wonderful things to her, and she only wanted to do something back.

Enjoying her sweet little moans in his ears, Ichigo wedged himself between her legs and continued to feast on her mouth. He eventually released her hands to let his own roam over her waist. She was so warm and curvy beneath his palms, it made him shiver heavily.

Pulling apart to breath, the two coworkers stared at each other intensely, merely waiting to catch their breath and see if one of them would say something. Orihime smiled shyly and Ichigo's lips were pulled into a nervous line.

"Um, your lips..." He coughed, glancing down at them once more. "... They definitely are kissable." Orihime giggled and timidly wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Would you really be interested in going out for drinks again next week, Kurosaki-kun?" She asked softly, her voice sweet like sugar. With the way she asked him, he wasn't so sure he wanted to refuse.

"S-Sure..." He found himself stuttering again, but he put it aside and bemusedly watched her face light up. "Make me a promise though?" Orihime's smile faded into a curious pout, and she nodded.

"No more chocolate martinis."

.

.

.


	8. Give Me A Reason To Love You

_Prompt is from LunarStar77_

* * *

It is three 'o clock in the afternoon when Orihime meets Ichigo in the park. Orihime uses the park as a shortcut when she goes from home to the store, and Ichigo has promised to watch over Karin as she plays a soccer game with her friends.

He is sitting on the park bench, his head going from left to right to left as he watches the soccer ball go back and forth between the teams.

"Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asks, thinking she sees a familiar redhead sitting there. She is carrying a plastic bag filled with vegetables and bizarre spices for a new stew she is going to try making later.

Turning, he finds her behind the bench, and his lips twitch ever so slightly into a small smile for her. "Hey, Inoue. Wanna sit down?" She blushes a bit, but nods and takes the invitation to sit with him.

The two sit in silence and watch Karin go at it with her friends. It is a little later when Orihime speaks up.

"Karin-chan is very good at soccer," she tells him, her words complete truth. Ichigo smiles again, and inwardly he is proud of his sister.

"Yeah... I wouldn't be surprised if she happened to be professional with it when she gets older," he replies, seeing her bounce the ball on her knee before kicking it into the goal.

Orihime turns towards Ichigo and grins at him, pretending her blush is really not visible to him. "I'll be cheering for Team Kurosaki then, if that's what she decides to do!" He laughs faintly, and runs his hand through his thick, unruly locks.

"The team won't be called "Kurosaki", Inoue," he reminds her. "But thanks for the support anyway." Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Orihime turn even redder, and on the inside, he thinks it's kind of adorable.

The silence falls upon them again, but it isn't necessarily uncomfortable. With the summer breeze and the warm weather, it's actually quite nice to just sit and relax.

"So graduation is in a few weeks..." Orihime starts, fiddling with the handle of the bag. "Do you know what you're going to do after that?"

"I was thinking college and some part-time work for a while," he tells her, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I guess I hope to someday have a job relating to English, or something..." He had never told anyone that before, and his cheeks start to burn their own shade of red at the confession.

"Oh right! You like Shakespeare, don't you?" Orihime remembers, clapping her hands together in excitement.

"_Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds_," he quotes, hoping she won't catch onto any hidden meaning behind it. Orihime laughs and her smile is wider.

"That's so impressive! I think you'll do really well with anything you want to do!"

Secretly, he _actually_ wants to get married and start a family one day, with her part of it, but that is not something he will admit out loud.

"What about you?" he asks, glancing over at her. "What do you want to do?" He notices Orihime turns red, and he is suddenly intrigued.

"Oh, I've always thought it could be fun to be an astronaut, or a teacher, or a-"

"Baker?" he cuts her off, with good intentions. She practically jumps out of her seat, and her hands begin to flail wildly. _How had he known about that?_ Orihime thinks, her face growing hotter by the minute. His small smirk only makes the heat worse. He's secretly known about her entire confession for quite some time.

"H-How..." she starts off, her embarrassment apparent. "How do you know about that, Kurosaki-kun?" Her tongue darts out to wet her lips, as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.

Ichigo's brown eyes flash with something somewhat dark, and it makes Orihime turn hot all the way down to her toes. But he still smiles faintly and continues on, "I know a lot about you, Inoue."

In the distance, Karin and her friends are still playing their soccer, and Orihime feels like her heart is about to burst out of her chest. It's only them, and she feels like this is the best way to tell him.

"K-Kurosaki-kun, I want..." she pauses and turns towards him more, despite her red face. "I've wanted to tell you something for a while..."

Ichigo turns towards her as well, intrigued, but make no mistake, his heart is beating just as hard as hers is at the moment. She looked so beautiful to him at the moment, and whatever she had to say, it was important.

"... What is it?" he asks, sounding as calm and nonchalant as he can possibly be.

"I... I..."

"... You?"

"I love you," she blurts out, her eyes never leaving his. She desperately wants to look elsewhere to curb her embarrassment, but she tells herself this is important. "I-I have for some time..."

Ichigo could say the same to her, but for some reason, he craves more.

"... Can you answer me something?" The words roll off his tongue fluidly, and Orihime continues to fidget the longer he waits to reject her. At least, that is what she's always assumed he would do.

"O-Of course..." she responds timidly, bringing her shaking hand up to re-tuck her hair behind her ear.

"Give me a reason to love you, Inoue..." he tells her, and his words make her heart jump out of her chest. It wasn't quite the reaction she was expecting from him.

"I... I'm not special, and there's really nothing good about me," she starts off, feeling herself lose her statement in the slur of words. "But I-I promise you I'll do my best to give you everything you've ever wanted... Whether it's a family or a trip to the moon, I-I want to be the person beside you, for better or for worse, and, um... For sickness and in health?"

Feeling a little dumbfounded, Ichigo had to admit that her reply was a lot more than he'd imagined.

Clearing his throat, Ichigo blushed lightly. "You know that sounds like a wedding vow, don't you, Inoue?"

"O-Oh no, I didn't mean for it to sound like that at all!" Orihime squealed in mortification, throwing her hands up to hide her red cheeks. "Please just ignore that answer then, I'll think of something else-"

Ichigo took her hand and pulled it from her face, also cutting her ramble off short. Orihime only saw a glimpse of his bemused smile before he pressed a kiss to her soft lips. They were both inexperienced, and the kiss was sloppy, but it would definitely be a memorable one.

And it was the laughter of Karin and her friends teasing them that broke them apart from their kissing session.

.

.

.


	9. Fairy Tale 2

_Fly's prompt of "A comedic take on Sleeping Beauty"... Too bad it didn't turn out so well, lol._

* * *

Once upon a time, there was an beautiful baby, born from loving parents, and adored by a court of the Kingdom of Karakura. All of the kingdom's occupants were there to gaze upon the child and bestow their well-wishes. Among the crowd where three fairies, godmothers as you will, and they had come to give the newborn wishes.

"... Strength," came the booming voice of Sado Yasutora, the red fairy of the group. He was a man of little words, but what he meant as he waved his wand with the flick of a wrist, was that the new prince would be given strength of a thousand men.

Stepping up to the baby, a petite, dark-haired lady curtseyed before her king and queen before smiling somewhat sinisterly at the child. The fairy of blue, Kuchiki Rukia, was commonly known to be a trickster of sorts, and the royal couple raised a brow at what she would bestow upon their newborn son.

"To your beautiful baby boy..." she started, still grinning as she raised her wand high. "I will give him the gift of moronic density!" Before anyone could protest, Rukia had waved her wand over the boy.

"Rukia!" Arisawa Tatsuki, the fairy of green, screeched at her. "How could you give him such a curse?" Rukia shrugged as the royal couple had palmed their faces in defeat.

"We've seen his future anyway, and he's going to be dense and stupid anyway!" she retorted, as if it was a logical reason. Tatsuki opened her mouth to begin to bicker with Rukia again, but sighed and stopped short, remembering she was in the presence of the royal court, and she had still yet to present a gift to the bundle of joy.

Clearing her throat, she walked over to the cradle and held her wand up, her own incantation already in her mind. She was about to speak, but was immediately cut off by a loud booming voice and the slam of a door behind them.

"I'm so offended!" A low voice called out, sounding positively miserable. "How was I not invited to the party century? The birthing of Kurosaki Ichigo, the strong lad that would lead this country into greatness?"

Kurosaki Isshin, King of Karakura, ushered to his wife to get their son while he handled the intruder. "I'm so very sorry, Aizen. I was under the assumption you disliked parties."

Aizen scoffed and threw his hands up in a ridiculous manner. "That is incredulous stupidity! I love parties!" The dark magician was feared throughout the land, and the court and couple always had trouble keeping him out of their kingdom. He seemed to glide right over to Kurosaki Masaki, mother of the newborn prince, instead of walk, and he held a wicked smile on the face. "Shall I bestow a gift to your child as well, my majesty?"

"I-It's quite alright, Aizen-san," she spoke softly, undertones of fear coming through. "We couldn't ask you of such kindness."

"Then it shall be done!" He cheered, pulling his wand out of his sleeve. "Let it be known that on this child's 16th birthday, he will find himself upon a spinning wheel. On that spinning wheel is a spindle, which he will prick himself on..." He paused, glancing at the crowd nearby as they all gazed upon him in fear. "And die!"

Everyone gasped, and before anyone was able to do anything, Aizen swung his wand down over the baby and soon snapped his fingers to disappear out of sight. Masaki had fallen to the floor in defeat, holding her baby close.

"Is there nothing we can do?" she sobbed quietly, pressing her son's bright head against her cheek. Tatsuki cleared her throat and stepped forward.

"Uh, I'm still here, your majesty, and I have yet to grant a wish for Ichigo," she told him. She approached the two and smiled at the boy. "It'll be alright for him. Unlike Rukia's wish, I will give him something of value." In the background, Rukia protested that her wish was very much valuable.

"But how can we keep him from suffering his death in 16 years?"

Waving her wand, Tatsuki smirked. "Instead of dying on his 16th birthday, the prince, Kurosaki Ichigo, will merely sleep. He can only be awakened by true love's first kiss." The spell was placed, and immediately, the royal family felt a great relief on their shoulders.

"Oi, but what if he's a prude around women? He'll never let his rescuer live down the kiss," Rukia called out from behind. Isshin gasped lightly as he nudged the blue fairy in her side.

"My son will be the biggest player in all of the kingdom, you just see!" he told her, smirking. "What more, if he does decide to settle down, I would be ever surprised and thrilled to see him with a gal with big br-"

"Isshin!" Masaki cut him off, her eyes lightly scolding him. Isshin smiled sheepishly and returned to his wife's side. Together, they looked upon their inevitably dense and sleepy boy, wondering what the future may bring.

* * *

Many years past, all the way to Ichigo's 16th birthday. It was upon that day he found a lone, black spinning wheel in one of the castle's high towers, despite the kingdom having none around otherwise. He pricked himself that day, and fell into a deep sleep. To be generous additionally, all the fairies put the rest of the kingdom to rest in par with the sleeping beauty of a man. No one was to wake until he had awoken.

A few years later, outside the kingdom's castle covered with thorns, stood a young female, clad in men's clothing. With knee high socks and pants, and a plain, white peasants top, she gazed on the guarded castle with big eyes and an intrigued smile on her face. A rapier was nestled underneath the band of her belt, and it was coated with some blood. Green blood, to be exact, of the dragon's she'd defeated hours before to gain entrance to the castle.

"So this is the infamous castle!" Inoue Orihime grinned as she looked on the territory. "I've heard such incredible tales about this place!" Fixing her sword at her rapier at her side, she contemplated the rumor of a beautiful prince sleeping within. Would the rumor be true? Or was it just false information?

Regardless, Orihime daydreamed about how she'd wake up the sleeping beauty, and what he'd be like. She imagined a handsomely built structure, and brilliantly dark eyes.

"Thank you for waking me..." He'd tell her coolly, smirking at her as his hand slid around her waist. "For your incredulous kindness, allow me to repay you."

Squealing at the thought of such a noble man, Orihime threw her hands to her cheeks to calm her burning cheeks. "He would be so cool!" she chirped, her face flaming as she continued imagining what else he would do.

Although, while her mind wanted to wander to dangerous waters, her feet were already dragging her towards the castle. She had determination to awake the prince inside.

* * *

He was much more good looking than she'd ever imagined. He had orange hair and his structure was definitely impressive. Even underneath his dress and petticoats, she-

Stopping, she realized it was a _he_ dressed in a dress! _How odd!_ She thought as she looked at the sleeping man. But if that was how the crown prince preferred to dress, she was in no spot to say how he dressed was silly.

Shaking her head of the random thoughts, Orihime approached his form, her hands timidly shaking with nervousness. "So rumor has it a kiss is to awake you, fair prince..." she mumbled, resting a hand on the pillow beneath him, and the other cautiously cupping his cheek. Swallowing thickly, Orihime closed her eyes tight. "Here goes nothing!"

With a quick motion, she pressed her lips against his stiff, sleeping ones. He stayed still for a moment, before starting to shift beneath her leaning form. She pulled away from him and smiled big, her hand still resting on his face as he sluggishly opened his eyes. "You're awake!"she exclaimed.

Foggily, he looked upwards at the woman that was no more than a few inches away from his face. His cheeks burned brightly and he began to flail and scramble for explanation. "W-Who are you?" he yelped in an unintentionally high tone. Sheepishly standing upright, Orihime rubbed her neck with her hand.

"I'm your rescuer!" she told him as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "You had a curse on you that caused you to sleep for a while, apparently! I just slain your dragon and woke you up." On the inside, she almost thought kissing him was a tougher feat than slaying the beast.

With his lips still slightly tingling, he held his hand to his mouth, baffled. "Then I ask of you, rescuer, how did you wake me up?" Ichigo saw her bright blush and it made his own cheeks burn hotly as well.

"O-Oh, I kissed you!" she told him, again as if it was the simplest thing. Spluttering, Ichigo fell out of his bed and continued to flail. It was then he noticed the dress on his body and he starting swearing up a storm.

"D-Dammit, dad, first the sleeping thing, now this dress? What the hell is wrong with you?" he seethed, trying to tear off the fabric. It became clear to Orihime that his choice of wear was not his own choosing.

Kneeling to see him eye to eye, she smiled softly and genuinely, even though she did look a little nervous. "I'm glad you're awake, prince, but if there's nothing else for me to do here, I might as well take my leave." On the inside, she was a little sad at the idea of having to go. She'd just met the man and kissed him only once, but she didn't really want to leave.

"W-Wait," he said, reaching out to grab a hold of her wrist. "You just woke me from a long slumber, and for that I thank you..." he murmured, growing embarrassed himself. "Won't you at least stay for a while, and make yourself comfortable before leaving again?"

Surprised, Orihime nodded slowly and gave him her thanks. Helping him up, petticoats and all, the two walked hand in hand back to the central court, hoping to find the rest of its occupants also well.

.

.

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	10. Death

_Prompt from Nagi: Surrounded by death for all of his life, Ichigo feels as though he can't get close to anyone because he fears that he's cursed (or something). Then he meets Orihime, who shows him it's okay to get close to someone. AU-ish.

* * *

_

_Why do I even bother? No one ever survives._

The all-too familiar thought floats into his head, nagging and questioning as to why he's still reaching out for hope. Eighteen years and counting, Kurosaki Ichigo has been alone_, _no one ever there to comfort him or tell him it'll be alright. Even now, as he sits in practically empty park in a city called Karakura, he watches the children run around with parents following in pursuit and his heart clenches in agony.

What had he ever done to deserve such a fate? He didn't think he was a bad person. The way he and his family lived together was all in sync, despite the occasional fits of fighting him and his father would have. But Ichigo knew that was how his dad showed his love.

It all started seven years ago when Ichigo's mother died on the side of a river after trying to protect him from an oncoming car. It was raining hard and as her blood mixed with the water pouring down on them, he lost the most important person to him at the time.

Two years later, his sisters Yuzu and Karin died from their bus starting on fire. They were so young and innocent, and with an intoxicated driver of the school bus (his inability to drive unbeknownst to school officials that day) they ran a red light and struck another car. The accident killed the other driver and the fire in the bus killed five children, two of which had been his sisters.

Ichigo fell into a depression soon thereafter, a young teen feeling completely inadequate and useless when it came to protecting those he loved. He felt that everything was his entire fault, and no matter what his father would say.

A girl at school showed an interest in Ichigo in the 10th grade, and while he had never had a relationship before and was hesitant to start one anyway, Ichigo was scared to get close to her. It took a lot of time for him to befriend her then enter a world of high school romance. Walking to school with her and spending time at her place to do homework; everything they did seemed wonderful and it started to bring Ichigo out of his shell. After feeling like he'd never be happy again, this girl was showing him all the good, positive things in life.

It was approximately four months after they started dating when she threw herself off a building.

Ichigo felt guilt for it all, especially considering they had been so happy the day prior. She never mentioned anything was wrong nor made any body language to indicate a tormented life. Sinking back into agony, he blamed himself for her death. It was his father and himself for what seemed to be a good stretch of time. He figured the numbness from all the deaths made time seem longer.

The week before Ichigo's graduation, his father was called into the nearest hospital's emergency room to help with the victims of a close-by shooting. He was courageous and determined to save all the lives in the ER, and he did with great success. There was just one causality that day, and it was himself.

One of the fugitives that participated in the shooting, who had been in the ER due to a severe head wound, took his hidden gun to his father and shot him point-blank. As a family survivor, Ichigo received a medal in honor of his father's bravery and ability to rescue all those victims.

But it didn't matter to Ichigo. It wasn't like a medal could sit in a seat and watch him graduate from high school.

Left alone, Ichigo hadn't met anyone else and any verbal contact with people was minimal. All the people he had gotten close to had died, and he couldn't help but feel like it was his entire fault.

"Pardon me, sir, but can I sit here as well?" A soft spoken voice inquires to him, causing him to break from his thoughts. Those dark, moody, anguishing thoughts were replaced with the smiling face of a beautiful woman, her hair auburn in color and eyes in a hue that resembled honey.

Clearing his throat, Ichigo shifts over and nods stiffly, returning his gaze to the playing children. Sometimes it helped to watch the happy kids, numbing his pain and instead making him crack a smile once in a while at the sight of pure innocence.

"I'm Inoue Orihime," she introduces herself, sticking out her hand while wearing that grin. It was so odd to see someone smile so much, and it was even odder to see someone introduce themselves to him. Normally he made a point to appear unapproachable.

Uncomfortable with people, due to his restraint for so long, he awkwardly stuck his hand out and grasped hers. It was much smaller than his and softer too, it was honestly startling.

"Kurosaki Ichigo," he mumbles back, his own voice sounding distant and unfamiliar to him. Orihime pulls her hand back to her lap and her cheeks are dusted with a light pink hue.

"That's a wonderful name, Kurosaki-san," she comments, brushed her hair behind her ear. Ichigo shrugs and watches the kids, feeling bits and pieces of that despair starting to creep into his thoughts. "The kids are fun to watch, aren't they?"

Nodding again, he can't help but agree. Many a times Ichigo wishes he could return to a simpler time, a period where no one dropped like flies around him.

"Why are you here?" he finds himself blurting out before he can hold back the words. On one hand, he fears she'll be offended by his harsh tone, but he also does better alone rather than with others.

Humming, Orihime turns her head towards the sky. She inhales the summer air deeply and smiles again. "You looked lonely."

Frozen, Ichigo wonders if he was too obvious, and if he was, was there a way to change it as to be left alone? He shook his head in the negative. "I'm not lonely. I'm just fine." He couldn't help the slight change in pitch as he voiced the word 'lonely'.

Standing up suddenly, Orihime turns to him, unfazed by his downhearted utterance of words. She held out her hand for him to take, and Ichigo could only stare at it dumbfounded. "I know the kids are fun to watch, but would you like to join me for lunch, Kurosaki-san?"

As much as his brain screamed at him to not get into this whole mess again, his heart and body found themselves taking her hand and standing on his feet. _It's just a stranger_, he tells himself, noting that there'd be no way he'd allow himself to melt around this woman. _A weird one at that._ She was odd to him, but it was still something that pulled him in.

As she turned to leave with Ichigo in tow, he let his usually tensed expression and scowl faded away. As strange as this woman seemed, there was a nagging feeling she'd be the one person to melt his frozen, anguished heart.

.

.

.


	11. New Year

_Kenkai's: Orihime makes a New Year's resolution to come clean to Ichigo about her feelings. The confrontation doesn't go quite as expected, however. Feel free to throw in whatever zany twist you can think of.

* * *

_

As the New Year rolled around, Orihime made a vow to be a better person. With more kindness, random acts of generosity, and the idea to be more honest with her feelings, she made a promise to herself to become the best person she could be. Whether or not that included new laser powers or x-ray vision had yet to be determined.

At Tatsuki's place for a friendly gathering of people to ring in the New Year, the healer stood by the window and watched the fluffy white snow fall. Occasionally taking a drink of her punch, she felt a wave of relief wash over her as she mentally replayed her resolutions in her head over and over again, like a mantra.

_This will be the year_, she told herself. After what seemed to be long years of somewhat lessened self-esteem and self-worth, Orihime came to tell herself things won't change unless she changed them herself. If she wanted to be a better person than she already was, she was going to have to just _do it_, not wait for a good opportunity to redeem herself.

This particularly applied to her fellow redheaded friend and longtime crush. For so long, she'd wanted to protect him on her own terms; to protect and not be the protected. For the most part, Ichigo took that roll quicker than she could say 'I like sweet potatoes with butter'. One potential solution to that problem was to be just a second quicker than him and blast in with Tsubaki and the rest of her Shun Shun Rikka. It was a start, but she knew she'd need to give it more thought.

Another thing Orihime had been giving more thought was the possibility of confessing her deepest, darkest feelings for said boy. Perhaps they weren't so dark at all, but she liked to think they were quite mysterious sometimes, especially when Ichigo didn't quite catch on for the most part. Ever since she had gone from measly crush to full-blown love for Ichigo, the idea of confessing had been an embarrassing one, but one that needed to be considered nonetheless. It was only in recent months that she had seriously considered confessing to Ichigo. While before the question was 'yes or no', the new inquiry was 'when and where'.

Even tonight, as she gazed out the window, butterfly-like monsters invaded the pit of her stomach and her heart raced as if she had just run a marathon, but the idea of being resolute towards her goals seemed to calmed her down a bit. Orihime thought she had gotten off easy this far into the night, enjoying talking to Ichigo once in a while (whom was also invited to Tatsuki's party). It was just as it got closer to midnight she felt herself shake at the bold thought of giving him a New Year's kiss at the stroke of midnight. But surely that would be a big thing to even consider, right?

At approximately ten minutes to midnight, Ichigo came to Orihime's side with two party poppers; one for himself and one for her. If she wasn't mistaken, he looked a little flush at this point, but all the enjoyment could've been getting to his head too.

"You excited for a new year, Inoue?" Ichigo asked, fiddling with his popper. Nervously, Orihime nodded her head and beamed at him.

"Of course! It's a great opportunity to get the courage to be a better person," she commented back. The way he messed around with the party favor in his hands made her smile at his apparent cuteness.

Cracking an odd smile, he brought a hand to the back of his hand and tenderly rubbed at his neck, an action he always did subconsciously as a sign of nervousness. "You don't need to be a better person," he replied, blowing out a quick breath. "You're already too good for any of us."

Orihime raised her eyebrows and her eyebrows read confusion at what context he meant that last part in. She shook her head free of the thought that he referred to dating or the like; the idea was just too silly to consider seriously, at least for Ichigo.

"O-Oh," she found herself stuttering. "Thank you... But there's always something we can do to better ourselves, isn't it?" A glance at the clock told her three minutes had passed, and it was only seven until midnight. "We may not be perfect, but we can at least try to appear to be in our own eyes."

A small, stifled laugh escaped Ichigo's lips. "That's quite philosophical, Inoue." His laughter made her face burn a bright red and a nervous giggle spilled from her lips. She knew she should thank him or something of the sorts, but her embarrassment flooded into her senses and she couldn't configure the right words to reply with.

Another two minutes passed and either of them refused to move away from that spot by the window. Orihime knew she had her resolutions set straight, but she didn't know of Ichigo's.

"Ah, Kurosaki-kun, what's your new year's resolution?" Craning his head, the shinigami looked a little surprised at the question. He hadn't been expecting her to ask the inquiry and he hadn't given his resolutions as much thought as she probably did.

"I'm not sure..." Ichigo shrugged, feeling a little sheepish at his lack of response. "Though I suppose it wouldn't hurt to actually pass my classes in order to graduate." Even as a substitute shinigami over the city, he was continually called out to deal with hollows. But just because the hollow count had been less as of late didn't mean his grades weren't suffering from the times he was gone.

Giving him a crooked smile, Orihime watched their friends congregate towards the clock, which now showed only two minutes until midnight. "What about you?" he asked in return.

It was odd how she'd repeated her resolutions in her head many a times, but as soon as Ichigo asked about them, she totally blanked. "Um... Something about being stronger, I think."

"You think?"

"Ah, yes..." Flushing, she felt silly for answering in such a manner. "And..." A minute left until midnight.

Oddly enough, Ichigo seemed to get closer, but Orihime couldn't tell if that was because she was getting quieter or if was getting closer because he had just wanted to. Either way, the feel of his body heat radiating onto her skin made her a little light-headed.

"Thirty seconds!" Keigo screeched from the other side of the room, taking steps backwards, stumbling slightly with excitement. "I'm finally going to get my kiss!"

Swallowing thickly, Orihime's mind wandered back to the question of 'when and where'. What if the answer to that was 'here and now'? She and Ichigo were in public, which was the only con in a whole sea of positives, but they were together and talking. The mood was right and so far he didn't seem to want to push her away or anything.

"Kurosaki-kun?" she asked, using all the strength she could muster to look at him straight in the eyes. Those chocolate brown irises never looked so startling to her. "I... I..."

Twenty seconds.

"You?"

Ten seconds.

"T-There's been something I've been wanting to tell you for a long time, Kurosaki-kun," she started out, her friends growing louder as they started the countdown from ten.

Nine.

"And I would understand if you don't feel the same... But I would hope we could still stay friends anyway." As baffled as he looked, he was genuinely listening with concern.

Eight.

"You know I'll always be your friend, Inoue."

Seven.

"I... Kurosaki-kun, I like you!"

Six.

Their friends were loud as they both stood in silence. Ichigo wore a blank expression, which only made Orihime's heart sink in uneasiness.

Five.

"What was that about a bike?" he blanched, confused.

Four.

Orihime mustered up all the courage she had to try and repeat those oh-so embarrassing words again.

Three.

"I like you!"

Two.

This time, Ichigo stood still in utter shock and a faint blush began to grow over his cheeks.

One.

Within a second, Ichigo's expression changed from startled to a more determined one and he grabbed Orihime's shoulders. Both dropped their celebratory poppers, and just as he was about to pull her closer, which sent her heart into cardiac arrest, the group cheered at the final stroke of midnight. As quick as she was pulled in, she was pulled apart by another person's arms, enthusiastic as they were.

"Happy New Year, Inoue-san!" Keigo exclaimed, planting a big, wet kiss on the poor healer's lips. From Ichigo's arms to Keigo's, Orihime received her first kiss ever on the night where great, new things happened. Kissing Keigo was definitely new, but compared to Ichigo, she begged to differ about the 'great' concept. Keigo was a friend, not her object of affection, unfortunately for him.

He sprinted off, full of joy and delight to have gotten a kiss from his true love, and Ichigo and Orihime stood dumbfounded by the window, and even Tatsuki had gotten a last glance of the kiss-stealer. But as soon as he ran off, he saw his two friends together and decided against pummeling Keigo, at least until later.

Pressing her fingertips to her lips, her eyes started to prickle with some unshed tears. Maybe she had gotten her expectations up too high, but she'd never thought Ichigo would first confuse her words with a bike then later be kissed by the boy _not_ of her dreams.

Orihime felt hands on her shoulders again and she looked up to him warily. "Kurosaki-kun..." she murmured.

Smiling faintly, he pulled her a little closer. "I'd say that probably didn't count..." he spoke his thoughts, sure that she was thinking along the same lines. "What do you think?"

Nodding, a small, relieved grin spread on her features. "Probably not." It was then when Ichigo pressed his lips, albeit sloppily, against hers in an incredibly inexperienced kiss. It didn't last too long, but when he pulled apart, he looked as if his face would explode from the heat. Clearly he was just as embarrassed as she was. He could talk the suave talk, but when it came to action, it was obvious how amateur he was to all this.

"Does that count?" he asked, his words all tumbling out so fast she almost didn't catch it. Taking a deep breath and nodding, a large smile seemed to grow on her face.

"That definitely counted."

.

.

.


	12. Stupid Sexy Ichigo

_Nagi's Prompt: Orihime is secretly lurking/stalking Ichigo, taking pictures of him for the annual Soul Society calender, sponsored by the Shinigami Women's Association. What will Ichigo do when he sees the calender and puts two and two together?

* * *

_

_Click._

The noise caused Ichigo to turn his head around in confusion. His brown eyes widened to find his girlfriend of two years, Inoue Orihime, snapping a photo of him as he was removing his shirt. She wore a sheepish expression as she lowered the digital camera from her face, smiling faintly. "Ah, hello, Ichigo-kun," she murmured as if nothing had happened.

Cocking an eyebrow, he eyeballed that camera and then tossed his shirt into the nearby hamper. "Uh, hey," he coughed, his cheeks a hint of red as he stood before his girlfriend shirtless. Granted, they had been living together for a year now in their homely little apartment, but with Orihime stumbling in on him while he changed clothes, it was still embarrassing. "What's with the camera?"

Orihime just about dropped it as if it was never there, but once her grip on it tightened, her previous smile fell into an awkward pout. "... Scrapbook," she replied, sounding a little uneasy.

"Of me getting undressed?" Ichigo blanched, making her blush heavily.

"I-I'm trying something new and artistic!" Was her response, waving the camera. There was a slight edge to her voice, as if she was anxious of sorts. "And you're such a good subject, don't you think?"

Ichigo took a step closer to her and was going to snatch the camera from her hands to look at the others he assumed to be on there, but she clutched it close with a look in her eye that silently said she was refusing to let go of it. "My rippling abs is a good subject?" he teased, watching her face grow red with his bantering.

"I-Ichigo-kun..." Stuttering, she seemed to retreat a little, bowing her head from embarrassment.

"Or have you been taking pictures of my ass too?" A sneer grew on his face as he took a step towards her. It was all too easy, and amusing, to make her blush. "I know too well how you like that part of me."

"I... I have to go run errands!" Orihime suddenly blurted out, snapping her head up and nearly missing Ichigo's chin. He was millimeters away from having a cracked jaw from her thick skull. Regardless of reaction time, Orihime snatched her purse sitting nearby on the dresser and ran out the door, still with camera in hand. Ichigo was left staring at the entrance, confused at what just happened but very curious as to what this new 'hobby' of hers was about. Pictures of him?

The thought of it made his stomach sink a little bit, but the thought of taking photos of her seemed to appeal to him too.

Maybe Orihime was on to something.

* * *

Exasperated, Orihime gasped and sighed as she slowed down her steps. Ichigo had embarrassed her so bad, she thought she'd never recover from his brutal this time.

Looking up from the gray pavement, she started to look around for a familiar friend. Today was the deadline for her little project and she needed to turn her camera over so they could use the photos. She was so very lucky to have caught Ichigo taking off his shirt to be the final photo in her vast collection of pictures.

"Inoue!" A voice called out, causing Orihime to turn around and see Rukia running towards her with a smile. She raised her hand and waved to her shinigami friend.

"Hello, Kuchiki-san! I'm so glad to see you," Orihime commented, bemused by Rukia's own smile. She hadn't seen her for a few weeks, when she brought the message of the project initially, so it was nice to see her again after that time.

"Did you get the photos?" Rukia inquired, readjusting her zanpakutou that had shifted while she was running. "I know it was a lot of pictures to ask for on short notice, but I thought if anyone could do it, it'd be you."

Orihime held up the digital camera for her with a smile on her face. "I think there's a good selection on here. The committee should have no problem deciding from these!" Turning it on and pressing the button to view the pictures, she then handed the camera to Rukia to look over.

Rukia glanced through the photos, her smile from before started to melt away and change into a thick blush on her cheeks. Every picture she looked at seemed racier than the last, and even though she and Ichigo were just friends, Orihime got some pretty... interesting shots, for lack of a better word.

"Jeez, Inoue... How in the world did you get these?" she asked, having to double take at most of them. She had a hard time believing these were Ichigo.

Smiling sheepishly, Orihime shrugged. "Persistence and sneakiness," she honestly admitted. "Are they bad?"

Rukia probably shook her head too fast, but she resorted to turning off the camera. She wasn't so sure she could handle much more of Ichigo's bare skin in the photos. "Not at all, but, uh... That after-shower one? Only you could accomplish that kind of thing."

Just then, Orihime turned beet red and she bowed her head to hide her burning face. "Y-Yes, that was an interesting one to take..." she murmured under her breath.

Curious, Rukia slid the camera into her pocket and raised a brow. "What happened? Did he catch you?" Orihime nodded very stiffly and seemed to freeze upon being asked the question.

"Sort of... I-I usually don't go into the bathroom when he's in there, but I needed to for the picture. He didn't know I was taking a photo, since I hid the camera after I got the picture, but he seemed very, um... pleased to see me there..." Blushing hotly, Orihime raised her hands and waved them around wildly to deter from that insanely awkward conversation. Rukia probably didn't want to know about their intimate relationship anyway. "A-Anyway, when do you think you and the committee will be done with my camera?"

Rubbing her neck awkwardly after Orihime's slight mumble about Ichigo and the shower, she happily opted to answer the question instead. "Maybe a week or two? Does that work out for you?" Orihime nodded, her anxious expression changing back to her normal, smiling one. But she still had a look of wanting to ask something else to her, but wasn't sure how to phrase it. "Were you wanting a copy too, Inoue?"

A sign of relief appeared in her eyes and she nodded happily. "I-If I could, that would be most wonderful!" Rukia smiled at Orihime.

"It'd be no problem at all. After all, you're the one that's supplying us with the most important parts." Rukia was about to continue when her alarm went off, signaling a hollow attack. Orihime looked about ready to jump in at the sound of it when Rukia reassured her. "I'll take care of it, Inoue. See you in a few weeks then to give you your camera back!"

Her shinigami friend leapt to a nearby building and disappeared out of Orihime's sight. She felt good about helping Soul Society when she could and she knew the photos would be a big success, but she couldn't help but get a sinking feeling in her stomach about what to do when Ichigo would discover it, if he ever did.

Swallowing thickly, Orihime took a deep breath to calm herself, mentally noting that she had time to figure out what to do. Sighing again, Orihime began her trek back home, already planning in her head.

* * *

Five days later, a package arrived to their apartment while Orihime was at work. Ichigo was home that day, meaning he was there to receive it. At the door stood a nameless shinigami he didn't know, holding a package out for him.

"Shinigami Representative Kurosaki's residence?" the shinigami inquired, his voice surprisingly low for someone being so small.

"Yeah, that's me," Ichigo replied, awkwardly taking the box from his hands. "But what's this for?" The shinigami could only smirk at Ichigo, making the boy even more confused.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he joked, resituating his zanpakutou before preparing to shunpo off. "Anyway, nice pictures, buddy." And with that, the man left, making Ichigo scowl hard. He didn't know what he meant, and it only pissed him off further.

He held the package in his hands, staring it down as if it were going to bite him or something. "What an ass..." he unanimously decided about the shinigami, kicking the front door shut with his foot. The door closed with a slam that went unnoticed by Ichigo as he made his way to the couch. Since the box didn't have a name on it, he figured it was okay to open it up.

Peeling the tape off and tossing it to the side, he only grew more curious as to why Soul Society sent him a random package. There was nothing he needed or requested from them, so it only more mysterious to him as he pulled the flaps off. On the top of the box was a letter, signed with a familiar name at the bottom. _Rukia._ Nothing good could come from that damned shinigami, he knew, but it still didn't stop him from reading over the note.

_Good news, Inoue! The calendar got done sooner than planned! I would've delivered these to you personally, but Nii-sama sent me out on a mediation trip with for a while, which meant I had to have someone else do it for me._

_Thanks again for all your help! This wouldn't have been such a great success without you!_

_Rukia._

Underneath the letter was Orihime's camera, the one Ichigo had not seen from Orihime since she snapped that picture of him taking off his shirt before. He found it odd that Rukia had it, especially since, to his knowledge, Orihime and Rukia hadn't met any time recently.

Putting the camera and letter to the side, Ichigo continued to dig through the box, ultimately finding a calendar, just like the one mention in Rukia's note. _Had Orihime helped take photos for this year's calendar or something?_ he wondered, starting to think he was putting two and two together. Flipping open to the first month, he was expecting to find some nice photo of a flower or something serene that the Soul Society would probably want to put into something like this. What he found was something completely different.

It was himself sleeping, lying on his back, shirtless he will add, his brows furrowed together in their usual manner.

Concerned, he flipped to the next month, February, and discovered the next one was of Ichigo brushing back his hair with his hand. Again, shirtless. He remembers that day vividly, that freakishly hot day in the middle of fall. He recalls being so out of it due to the heat exhaustion, but he doesn't remember Orihime ever taking a photo of him doing that.

The next months were only worse, each one baring more and more skin. One month included that most recent picture of him taking off his shirt, and even worse was one of him in the shower. He remembers being amused she had stumbled into him while in the shower and he very much remembers how he took her against the wall because of it, but he had no idea she took a picture just beforehand.

He wondered if he should be lucky as to have only had it from the belly-button up, but his face burned hot as he flipped through every month. He couldn't tell if he was pissed off or embarrassed at these photos. Just when had she taken these?

"Ichigo-kun, you wouldn't believe the day I had!" Orihime chirped, coming into the house, keys in hand as she let herself in. "Hanako-san had me make five cakes in two hours and-" She was so ready to jump into a wild tale of cake-making, but was cut short as she saw Ichigo holding up a calendar, his face bright red as he glared at her.

He wasn't mad at her, because knowing Orihime, she was just trying to be helpful. He was just upset knowing all of Soul Society would be looking at a photo of his firm ass come Christmas.

"What happened to the scrapbook?" Ichigo choked out, setting the calendar on the coffee table. Orihime dropped her things to the floor and avoided his gaze.

"A-Ah... Change of plans, I guess."

Ichigo sighed heavily and Orihime had a bit of a heavy heart now that Ichigo knew about her little project and was plenty frustrated. She wanted to help Rukia and the Shinigami Women's Association, but if her boyfriend was going to be eternally angry at her, it probably wasn't worth it.

A flash brought her stare back to Ichigo, whom was holding her camera in his hand with a dead-serious look on his face.

"Take off your shirt," he told her bluntly, causing her to explode and splutter. He held up the camera, leaving her no choice to comply with his serious expression. When he looked like that, there was no way to change his mind.

"I-Ichigo-kun!"

"Since you got yours, I'm going to get mine."


	13. First Kiss

_Prompt: Summer festival (Tanabata, Obon, etc.), last year of high school, kimono, plushie doll. Any of these. =) _

* * *

July – the one time of year Orihime loved the most.

Perhaps it was because of the romantic story of star-struck lovers in Tanabata that only allowed meeting once a year. The idea fascinated yet horrified her at the same time. As it stood now, the thought of not being able to see Ichigo, the one she had loved for so long, only once a year made her heart twist in ways she knew it shouldn't.

However, only weeks prior to the festival, she, Ichigo, and her other friends all graduated from Karakura High, marking this as the last summer before they'd all leave to go to their means of post-secondary education. Orihime's plans were to attend a school in Hokkaido, as an institution provided a full-ride scholarship for her. (She knew it would've been silly to reject that offer considering her financial status.) Ichigo decided to stay around home and "intern" at their family clinic while attending some classes at a nearby community college. And since Hokkaido wasn't very close to home and she more than likely wouldn't have enough money to come home more than once a year, she'd dedicate a week or so around Ichigo's birthday and Tanabata to come home.

Her birthday didn't matter so much. It was Tanabata and Ichigo's birthday that she loved being in Karakura for.

Watching people walk by, families, couples, children, she took in the scenery before her. Maybe Tanabata festivals would be fun in Hokkaido, but they'd be no where near as thrilling as they would be with her friends. Everything in Karakura seemed homelier around this time of year.

As a light breeze blew through the park, the fabric of Orihime's pink and green kimono floated with the wind. She shivered temporarily, at first finding it cold but soon welcoming it. Even if her event with her friends would be cold, she'd still accept it regardless.

"Inoue?" A familiar voice called out to her, causing Orihime to turn her head towards the source of the sound. On the right of her, making his way through a pair of first-graders was Ichigo, clad in fitting jeans, a dark red T-shirt, and a baseball cap upon his head. She couldn't deny that she was a little disappointed to see him in street clothes. She secretly hoped he would've worn a yukata. Regardless, he still looked plenty good-looking in her eyes.

A smile broke out on her face and she stood up, removing herself off the bench. "Good evening, Kurosaki-kun! You're here early," she commented, knowing without looking at a clock or watch it wasn't the meet-up time for their friends. She herself had left an hour beforehand just to people-watch and take in the festival's scenery. It couldn't have been an hour already.

"But you're here even earlier," Ichigo replied, readjusting the baseball cap on his head. "I was wondering if you were going to come before the time everyone else was. Now I'm glad I decided to leave when I did." He looked so nonchalant as he spoke, it surprised Orihime that he was able to speak so calmly, in addition to the actual context of his statement.

Flushing lightly, she mentally willed her blush to go away as she composed herself to talk to Ichigo. "Are you saying you left earlier on purpose? ... For me?" Ichigo didn't blush or anything like she did, but he smiled lightly and nodded.

"You've always been one to arrive early," he commented in return. His eyes shone as if he was recalling all the times she'd been the one to be at an event first. The words insinuating that he'd been noticing that all these years only made her face grow hotter.

"S-Still," she couldn't help but stutter. "You didn't need to come earlier just because you expected me to." Now she was feeling a little odd for showing up at the park when she did, especially since Ichigo came as well, giving them a whole half an hour before the others would start to arrive.

"It gives us more time to spend before then, doesn't it?" Ichigo replied. He pulled his hat down just a little to cover his eyes, turning to face towards the nearby pond. "Besides, we haven't gotten to spend time together like this before and since you're leaving for Hokkaido soon..." He trailed off, unsure of how he should finish. She was sure Ichigo sported a faint blush on his cheeks now, but Orihime couldn't be sure due to the different hues everywhere caused by the sunset.

"Thank you," Orihime murmured, a small smile of her own gracing her features. Ichigo turned back towards her, glancing at her from beneath the bill of his cap. At first his face looked tensed and nervous, but it was her grin that made him relax a bit. On the inside, he was thankful she didn't think the idea of hanging out together was weird.

Taking a step ahead of him, Orihime began her way towards the other end of the park. She turned around to face him for a split second and motioned for him to follow. "Let's go make our wishes, ne?"

Bemused by her enthusiastic attitude, he couldn't help but smile that gentler grin he seemed to only show around her and followed her in pursuit.

* * *

The fireworks at the very end of the night were Orihime's favorite part of the festival, but for today, it could be considered the most dreaded. After this, it meant she would have to leave for Hokkaido the next day to give herself enough time to settle onto the campus. The thought was heavy in her heart and by now, she wasn't sure she'd be able to have very much fun without her friends.

Before she and Ichigo met up with the others, Orihime made her wish, per usual of the Tanabata festival. While in past years she wished to keep on loving Ichigo fervently, things were a little different this year. She knew her feelings for Ichigo wouldn't change, at least not for any time soon, so upon the paper, she wrote for Ichigo's safety. She knew he was a tough guy, able to stand on his own for quite some time, but Orihime made the mistake of assuming he'd be alright in Hueco Mundo during his fight with Ulquiorra. Without her around healing him like she had in high school, it was all a mystery as to how he would do after she left.

Letting go of a staggering sigh, she rubbed at her eyes to wipe away brimming tears. The fireworks and their colors were getting all blurred together because of her sudden bought of crying. Not to mention she couldn't have one of her friends come over and be concerned. She'd cried far too much in the past few years; she didn't want them to see her crying now. Orihime wanted to appear to be a strong, matured college-bound woman.

Someone plopped down into the spot next to her and at first she assumed it to be Tatsuki. While still in a general group before, Orihime had been spending most of the night with her, while Ichigo hung out with Sado and Keigo. It was much to her surprise to see Ichigo sitting down, with two taiyaki in hand. He held out one of them for her.

"Here, Inoue. You looked like you could use a snack," he commented, offering it to her. She tentatively took it with one hand and reached for her bag.

"Thank you, Kurosaki-kun..." she mumbled, embarrassed that he got something for her. She took out her wallet and pulled out enough money to cover her part of the snack. "Here." She forced the change into his space, waiting for him to take it, but he just glanced at it and shook his head instead.

"It's my treat," he continued, the edges of his lips threatening to tweak themselves in a small smirk. This caused her to blush brighter all while her heart raced and pounded in her ribcage. He was being so kind tonight, more so than usual, and it left Orihime a little anxious. She knew she was either getting her hopes up and seeing things that weren't there or maybe she was trying to see the most of Ichigo, even his utmost caring side, as she could before she had to go.

To keep from letting a mix of a sigh and groan out, she bit down on the treat and closed her eyes tight. Regardless of whether or not Ichigo was acting different, she was growing sadder with each nearing moment of the end of the festival. She didn't particularly want to leave Karakura, but she also knew Sora would've encouraged her to go explore the world, because no matter what she did, her friends and family would always be there for here no matter the location. She wasn't regretting anything, but it still made her upset.

"The fireworks are cool," Ichigo murmured, sensing the silence that fell upon them. It was unusual for Orihime to be quieter, thus the sudden conversation, but he also gathered the notion that it had something to do with her leaving.

Raising her head to watch the bright explosions, she sniffled faintly and blinked. They were beautiful as always, and in a sense, she felt like each firework set off into a plethora of colors mimicked the way her heart beat so rapidly in her chest. "They're very pretty," she replied, muffling her words with another bite of taiyaki. Her throat was starting to hurt from the restrained tears and had she not taken a bite of it, it probably would've been all too obvious.

Another silence graced their presence, and neither could tell if it was comfortable or not. Ichigo had finished up his own taiyaki and let himself collapse onto the grassy hill he sat upon. The cool blades felt funny as they brushed his tanned skin, but it didn't bother him so much, as he had other things to think about. Pulling his hat over his eyes, Ichigo knew he wouldn't be watching the rest of fireworks.

Orihime was busy watching the fireworks when he mumbled something under his breath. Although slightly teary-eyed, she allowed herself to turn and lean just a few centimeters closer to Ichigo. "What was that? I didn't quite catch it..."

His lips were pulled into a tight line and Orihime couldn't see his eyes at all when he murmured, "You'll be missed, you know." To Ichigo, it was the simplest way he'd be able to say he'd miss her. He'd been giving it thought all evening on how to approach the issue, but it was the best he was able to come up with.

A little unsure of how to interpret his words, Orihime tilted her head a little to the side, turning away from him ever so slightly as she quietly replied back, "I know _I'll_ miss you, Kurosaki-kun..." Coming home once a year or not, she would still miss the sound of his voice and his touches. Like those times he would casually tap her on the shoulder; those were the times she cherished.

Just then, Ichigo's hand reached out to grip the crook of Orihime's elbow. Startled by the sudden action, she turned back around to face him in concern, and was soon met with a pair of lips. It was awkward and inexperienced, especially considering how he had pulled her down partially to kiss her. She was just about to flail and flip out that she must have accidentally fell on top of him in his attempt to grab onto her, thus instigating the kiss, but he soon broke it off and blurted out a string of curses.

"F-Fuck, Inoue... I just... I didn't mean to..." he groaned, pulling his hat down even further over his eyes, if possible. "I'm sorry, but..." Swearing again, he thought of himself as only stupid for letting his actions take control and doing something he personally didn't regret, but Orihime may now be upset with.

Still shocked, she raised her hand to her lips, covering them with a wide pair of eyes. Her words were caught in her throat, but with the fireworks ending soon, anything she needed to ask or say needed to be done now. "W-Was that supposed to be an accident, Kurosaki-kun?"

Ichigo only shook his head in the negative, purposely looking at the ground and not at her. Embarrassment and frustrations be damned, he couldn't lie to her. But he considered himself stupid for doing that right when she would have to leave so soon. Things would be forever awkward because of what he did.

"Then... it's okay," she murmured, lightly placing her hand on top of his in reassurance. A slight shake could be felt coming from her appendage, alerting Ichigo she was just as anxious as he was at the moment. "It's okay, Kurosaki-kun."

Sneaking a quick glance, he was surprised to see her so accepting about it. He was about to say something more, no doubt more apologies and another round of cursing at his stumbling over words, but Orihime leaned a little closer to him to kiss him in return. It was faint, no more than a vague brush of their lips, but in her mind, what she did took so much courage.

She pulled away just as quick, her face as red as a tomato. "A-Are we even now?" she found herself blurting out. Ichigo was now the stunned one, but in the recesses of his heart, he felt a swell of happiness and eagerness that he hadn't felt for quite some time. It was light and uplifting.

Swallowing thickly, he brushed his fingers against his lips for a brief moment. "Inoue?" he called out her name another time. Just as she turned towards him again, the last firework shot up into the air and exploded into a rainbow of bright colors. In that time, Ichigo's lips curled themselves up into a heartfelt smile, something that made his cheeks hurt, but in a way that he whole-heartedly accepted. "I'll miss you too."


End file.
